Unable to restore VM from tapes, Error: tapemark or blank tape encountered reading media header, drive index 3

[Wale]

Hi All,

When i try and restore a VM from tape i get the following error:

the restore failed to recover the requested files( 5)

the tapes are brand new and we were able to write to the tapes with no issue, this is happening on a number of restore job we are running. 

Our tape library are encrypted, we are using Netbackup 7.0.1 in a Windows 2003 R2 x64 environment

here is the detailed status:

5/8/2012 1:39:42 PM - begin Restore

5/8/2012 1:43:15 PM - media 000620 required

5/8/2012 1:43:15 PM - restoring image EMEALONXPEON_1293881455

5/8/2012 1:43:22 PM - started process bptm (3236)

5/8/2012 1:43:39 PM - started process bptm (5964)

5/8/2012 1:43:44 PM - requesting resource 000620

5/8/2012 1:43:44 PM - awaiting resource 000620 Reason: Drives are in use, Media Server: emealonnbu04, 

Robot Number: 0, Robot Type: TLD, Media ID: N/A, Drive Name: N/A, 

Volume Pool: N/A, Storage Unit: N/A, Drive Scan Host: N/A

5/8/2012 1:52:28 PM - started process bptm (3236)

5/8/2012 1:52:28 PM - mounting 000620

5/8/2012 1:52:28 PM - granted resource 000620

5/8/2012 1:52:28 PM - granted resource Library2_Drive1

5/8/2012 2:08:15 PM - Error bptm(pid=3236) tapemark or blank tape encountered reading media header, drive index 3  

5/8/2012 2:08:21 PM - end Restore; elapsed time: 00:28:39

the restore failed to recover the requested files(5)

I have alos attached the log file 050812_00001.log

Any ideas about this issue? 

[revarooo]

Check this technote:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH16017

Also is it the same media server doing the restore that did the backup?

[Wale]

Not necessary, we have 5 media serves in our main office and another two in a second office.

Master server is in the second office. 

[revarooo]

are they all configured with same drives, OS, drivers, touch files? if no, get the media server that wrote the backup to do the restore.

[Omar_Villa]

Do you relabel your tapes with a script or something? it will be the only reason to see an empty header or the tape was never writen, try to use tar to dump some data or at least read through the tape indexes just to be sure no data is in there, this will remove NBU from the equation.

[Wale]

@revaroo All configs are the same expect for one media server which is server 2008 R2 enterprise.

@omar villa We do not relabel are tapes via scripts or any other method once it has been barcoded.  These are brand new tapes and have only been written to once. 

[muhanad_daher]

are you stop VM services before restore? this a privilages issue.

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

Have you already tested writing and restoring file backups instead?

How did you configured encryption? With NetBackup KMS? With tape vendor's solution? Decru?

It is possible that encryption keys are not shared in tape drives if you use non-KMS solution. You should also open a case with tape drive vendor.

[Chad_Wansing2]

What is your SIZE_DATA_BUFFER setting?  I've seen a case where a customer overran the hardware buffer on their tape device and while the backups all ran like a champ, they couldn't restore a thing.  I leave my SIZE_DATA_BUFFER settings to 262144 and ramp up the buffering with the NUMBER_DATA_BUFFER variable if I need more on the back-end.