Vault - Returning Expired Media

[dunno]

Hello,

I've just set up Vaulting for my NetBackup 7.6 environmnent. Tapes are happily being Vaulted on a daily basis but the daily 'Picking List for Vault' report remains blank.

I've noticed from within the NBU media view that I have Vualted media assigned to the Scratch Pool that also belong to my Off-site volume group. The same media is listed in the Picking List for Robot email report that I received but they are missing from the NetBackup Vault report from the same date.

I'm assuming that as the media now appears as associated with the Scratch Pool that all images have expired and they are available for future backups. I am also assuming that the media should have been listed in the 'Picking List for Vault' report and returned to site?

I'm missing something obvious I'm sure but can someone assist please?

Thanks

[mph999]

Yes, once a tape is expired and is in the vault off-site volume group, the next time vault is run it should recall the off-site tapes, but only one, if the tape is left off-site it won't be recalled again.

First thing I would do is run vmquery -m <media id> for a couple of the problem tapes and check the vault fields, feel free to post up here. 

[dunno]

Thanks for the reply.

I did a bit of experiminentation and amended the Vault attribute from 'Containers of many media' to 'Slots for individual media'. This had the effect of populating the 'Picking List for Vault' report with the Vaulted media which had expired.

I've read the Vault doc a few times and I'm still not 100% sure why that works or when I would have cause to use each option.

Thanks

[mph999 · Accepted solution]

Ahh, yes containers are a bit of a different story, didn't think of that.

Most people use slots, and I'll be honest and say you don;t see containers very much, I'd have to have a play around to remind myself - I will hazard a guess that all media in the container would have to expire before it is called back, but that is a guess, I'd have to have a play/ check manuals.

If using slots works for you, go with that, it's more simple and what the vast majority of people do.

I think in almost 8 years, I've only had one case using containers ...