Unload all tape devices

[svabonius]

Hi guys!

I'm in the process of moving from EMC Networker to Symantec Netbackup. And boy is that a bit of a travel! - A good one though :)

One thing I'm missing is a command that does the following:

1. Eject all tape drives in a given tape library
2. Return tapes to their slots

Is this possible, or do I have to fiddle with robtest and the sorts?

Kind regards,
Jens Rohde
Fujitsu, Denmark

[StefanosM · Accepted solution]

The "command" that unload a drive and return the tape to the slot is the reset function of the GUI or of the vmoprcmd CLI command.

From the GUΙ, you can select all drives -> right click and select reset.

From the CLI you have to do it one by one, but it is very easy to write a script that resets all drives
vmoprcmd -resetbyname drive_name

Please note that you cannot reset a drive that it is assigned to a backup or restore operation.

[Marianne]

In addition to above excellent post:

reset will unload tape drive and return tape to slot.

vmoprcmd command must be run on the media server where tape is assigned.

On another note - NBU will automatically unload drives and return tape to slot within 3 minutes of completion of read/write operation. what would the purpose of such an exercise be?

[svabonius]

Thanks guys! - I have actually tried that without succes on some drives. But as long as I know, that this should work, I can move along and start to investigate, why it does not :)

Regards,
Jens

[Nicolai]

Please be aware of Netbackup will not unload a tape drive if it's assigned.

Use nbrbutil -dump to see any drive/tape reservations.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO42484

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH126575

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO43779

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH46807

Mvh Nicolai

(også i Danmark)

[Marianne]

Another reason why unload may fail is incorrect device mapping. Best to have VERBOSE entry in vm.conf on all media servers. This will log additional info in OS system logs.