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Unable to reuse L5 old tapes

Mehraban1
Level 4

Hi,

To make it the story short, my NBU server has crashed due to hardware issue. I replaced the server and installed fresh NBU v7.6 on the new server.

I did not restore the old configuration, catalog or any related database. Simply created similiar policies and want to carry on and reuse the old tapes, but for some reason I cant use them. 

 

I got the following errors when I tried to Erase them and expire them.

 

Media 0002L5 is due to expire at 01/01/1970 01:00:00
Are you sure that the data on this media is not critical to
your business, and you are sure you want to delete 0002L5 y/n (n)? y
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

 

and when I try to Erase the tape, i get the error 98.

 

Data on these old tapes were encrypted and I am not sure if they are expired.  Now the question is how to erase them? Do i need to restore old config/database from crashed server?

thanks,

Mehraban

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
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You cannot freeze unassigned media.

I see this in one of your posts :

"these medias gets stuck in " mouting" point."

So, lets concentrate on this and let's see if we can help you.

It seems that you have media that is mounting fine and written to, right?
Just a handful 'misbehaving '?

Forget for now about trying to expire, freeze or erase them and see if the tapes can be mounted outside of NBU.

Use robtest to mount / dismount one or more of these tapes.

I will post a TN a bit later (or you can Google for it).

In the meantime, enable NBU and Media Manager logging. Create bptm log folder in NetBackup\logs.
Add VERBOSE entry to vm.conf in volmgr folder, then restart Device Manager service.

View solution in original post

17 REPLIES 17

areznik
Level 5

Did you use the same name when you rebuilt the server? If not, you may need to reassign all your media to be owned by the new server.

Try this command for one tape:

bpmedia -movedb -m <media_id> -newserver <hostname> -oldserver <hostname>

Then try to erase it again. If that doesnt work give us the output of

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 0002L5 

 

ontherocks
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified
When you inventory this old tape  :: Media 0002L5 is this media is in Scratch volume pool or NetBackup volume pool ?

If yes then you don't need to expire it. This tape is ready for backups to be written on them, provided allocated to correct volume pool or scratch volume pool.

 

Michal_Mikulik1
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Hello,

you have mentioned that you did not restore NetBackup catalog.

Then there is no need to expire tapes or erase them. New NetBackup installation consider them as new and empty. Just perform robot inventory in NetBackup a start to backup to them and they will be overwritten from the beginning.

(Doublecheck first that you really dont need existing data on them.)

 

Regards

Michal

Marianne
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I would also like to see output of :
nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 0002L5

Why are you trying to erase tapes? 

If there is nothing in EMM or image db for the tapes, then NBU will automatically overwrite the tapes.

Just curious to know why you chose not to restore NBU catalogs?

Mehraban1
Level 4

Yes, i have used the same here-  here is the output. Thanks 

 

-------
NBEMMCMD, Version: 7.6.1
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     82433825-3cc0-4395-8835-409db449a9d9
Media ID:                       0018L5
Partner:                        -
Media Type:                     HCART2
Volume Group:                   000_00000_TLD
Application:                    Netbackup
Media Flags:                    1
Description:                    Added by Media Manager
Barcode:                        000018L5
Partner Barcode:                --------
Last Write Host:                NONE
Created:                        12/09/2015 17:44
Time Assigned:                  -
First Mount:                    -
Last Mount:                     -
Volume Expiration:              -
Data Expiration:                -
Last Written:                   -
Last Read:                      -
Robot Type:                     TLD
Robot Control Host:             xxx-xxxx.com
Robot Number:                   0
Slot:                           4
Side/Face:                      -
Cleanings Remaining:            -
Number of Mounts:               0
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0
Media Status:                   ACTIVE
Kilobytes:                      0
Images:                         0
Valid Images:                   0
Retention Period:               -
Number of Restores:             0
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0
Last Header Offset:             0
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE
Master Host:                    -
Server Group:                   -
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:
Pool Number:                    1
Volume Pool:                    NetBackup
Previous Pool Name:             -
Vault Flags:                    -
Vault Container:                -
Vault Name:                     -
Vault Slot:                     -
Session ID:                     -
Date Vaulted:                   -
Return Date:                    -
Media on Hold:                  0
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

Mehraban1
Level 4

The media were in Netbackup pool first, then I moved them to Scratch pool.  The reason I am erasing them is that I am not sure if data has expired and econd reason is these medias gets stuck in " mouting" point.

 

 

Mehraban1
Level 4

Hi Marianne,

I have to admit that I am learning and Im basic user of nbu, and need a lot of improvement to understand it fully. I generally manage to fix some issue but this got me little confused and I am still not sure if I restore the full catalog backup my old tapes would work and not mess with current catalog (one month old catalog) ?

Can I combine two catalogs into one nbu server?  

 

thanks

M

 

Marianne
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Catalog restore is something that must be done immediately after the failure. You cannot merge 1-month old catalog with previous catalog as a lot of tapes with (previously ) valid backups would be overwritten There are no valid images on this tape: Time Assigned: - First Mount: - Last Mount: - Volume Expiration: - Data Expiration: - Last Written: - Last Read: - No need to expire or erase. PS: do you have a Catalog backup policy in the new installation that runs at least once a day?

Mehraban1
Level 4

Yes, I do have a Catalog backup policy in the new installation.

When I try to Freeze them, i get the " requested media id was not found in NB media database and/or MM volume database 95"-  

Marianne
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You cannot freeze unassigned media.

I see this in one of your posts :

"these medias gets stuck in " mouting" point."

So, lets concentrate on this and let's see if we can help you.

It seems that you have media that is mounting fine and written to, right?
Just a handful 'misbehaving '?

Forget for now about trying to expire, freeze or erase them and see if the tapes can be mounted outside of NBU.

Use robtest to mount / dismount one or more of these tapes.

I will post a TN a bit later (or you can Google for it).

In the meantime, enable NBU and Media Manager logging. Create bptm log folder in NetBackup\logs.
Add VERBOSE entry to vm.conf in volmgr folder, then restart Device Manager service.

Mehraban1
Level 4

Actually all data on those old tapes which i am going to reuse were encrypted before the server has crashed.   I am suspecting that it could be due to an encryption that I can not reuse them?

Marianne
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Actually all data on those old tapes which i am going to reuse were encrypted before the server has crashed.  

There is no way you can reuse those tapes unless you know the exact encryption method that was used and reconfigure encryption with encryption keys that were used.

PS:

What kind of DR planning do you have in place?
Without proper recovery plan that includes protection of master server catalogs and encryption keys, your backups are basically worthless when you lose the master server.

Is this acceptable in a Production environment?

Michal_Mikulik1
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Hello,

 

read carefully posts above.

There is no need to expire tapes or erase them. New NetBackup installation consider them as new and empty.

No matter they were encrypted.

As recommended above, try robtest utility to check robot/drive function outside NetBackup first.

Regards

Michal

 

Mehraban1
Level 4

Hi Marianne,

The DR or Catalog files are getting backup to those encrypted tapes and it is only one master server.  However, these DR backups are also written on the second HDD drive which is we have raid in place for those disks. I can recover the file but I need to more training on DR.  Regarding the encryption key, I have used the same old key for the new server, even disabled encryption on the new server. So I dont know where am I missing?

 

I did ran the ROBTEST, and here are the results.

 

****************

Configured robots with local control supporting test utilities:
  TLD(0)     robotic path = {4,0,3,1}

Robot Selection
---------------
  1)  TLD 0
  2)  none/quit
Enter choice: 1
1

Robot selected: TLD(0)   robotic path = {4,0,3,1}

Invoking robotic test utility:
X:\Program Files\Veritas\Volmgr\bin\tldtest.exe -rn 0 -r {4,0,3,1}

Opening {4,0,3,1}
MODE_SENSE complete
Enter tld commands (? returns help information)
s d
drive 1 (addr 256) access = 1 Contains Cartridge = no
drive 2 (addr 257) access = 0 Contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4099 (slot 4)
Barcode = 000018L5
READ_ELEMENT_STATUS complete
s s
slot 1 (addr 4096) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4096
Barcode = 000019L5
slot 2 (addr 4097) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4097
Barcode = 000046L5
slot 3 (addr 4098) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4098
Barcode = 000049L5
slot 4 (addr 4099) contains Cartridge = no
slot 5 (addr 4100) contains Cartridge = no
slot 6 (addr 4101) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4101
Barcode = 000045L5
slot 7 (addr 4102) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4102
Barcode = 000048L5
slot 8 (addr 4103) contains Cartridge = no
slot 9 (addr 4104) contains Cartridge = no
slot 10 (addr 4105) contains Cartridge = yes
Source address = 4105
Barcode = 000020L5
<< Press return to continue, or q and return to stop >>

Marianne
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Please use robtest to move (problematic) tape into a drive:
m s <slot-#> d <drive-#>

If successful, use vmoprcmd command in another cmd window to confirm the tape mount in the drive.

Then unload the tape from the drive and move back to slot it came from.

Mehraban1
Level 4

The issue has been resolved. Problem was my mistake.

Actually data on those encryped tapes (which i thought were expired) was not expired,  thus making problem.  After waiting a month more to make sure that they are really expired, then all of those tapes started working.   

What learnt from this lesson is:

After netbackup server crash, immediately restore the "catalog".  this would bring you back to same stage as your old backup server.

 

I would like to thank everyone for trying to help me. Until next mistake see you :)

Best regards,

Mehraban

Marianne
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Can you please select the posts that have helped you and mark them in 'Request Split Solution' link?

Thanks!