Undrestanding media owner

[shahriar_sadm]

Hi dear all, I have a scalar i6k library with about 1500 media. about 600 media are full and full mpx. 253 media frozen mpx. 272 media frozen. 320 media active and active mpx. 

What a reson of many amount of frozen and frozen mpx media? is it normal? some frozen media has free space but they arent use for backups. Can I change status to active manually? data located in frozen media will expire after rotation time? 

In other hand for new backup we have active media with free space but if media owner is X, server Y backup failed with status 96 if no media available with media owner "NONE". is it normal? we have more than 70 media server and we cannot optimize library capacity. many free and active media not use for backups.

Whats your suggetion? 

Thanks

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

That amount of Frozen media is certainly not normal. Their are issues in your environment causing it.
Here is a TN with some possible reasons and how to unfreeze media:

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100010436.html

Media sharing is not enabled by default. So, the behaviour is normal. Once a tape is assigned to a media server, it is 'owned' by that media server until all images have expired.
Media sharing can be enabled - either with global/unrestricted media sharing or by creating media sharing groups.
https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/18716246-126559472-0/v15887824-126559472
https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/18716246-126559472-0/v15887834-126559472

[shahriar_sadm]

Thanks Marianee for helpful reply. is it safe to activate media sharing? not affect on previous images stored? do you recommend it?

[Marianne]

I personally like the idea of media sharing. Much better usage of media. 

Depending on your environment (e.g. all media servers attached to same library or different buildings and robots) you may want to create Media Server Groups for sharing.