You cannot freeze/ suspend a media if it is not in the media db.
Tapes that have been inventoried, are in the volume database.
vmquery -a shows these tapes.
When the tape is selected for use, it is given an assign time (one of the fields in the vmquery output). It is then added to the Media database, and then commands such as bpmedialist will show these tapes.
The message you receive, is becasue the tape is not in the media db (is unassigned). When a tape is expired, it is removed from the media database, and, providing it is not deleted from NBU, remains in the volume database.
I recommend this test.
Create a new volume pool (call it test_tapes)
Right click one of these media and select change - in the pop up window, you can select a new volume pool, add it to the 'test_tapes' volume pool.
Next, copy a backup policy, change the volume pool in this policy to use this new volume pool. Run the backup, does it work ? No need to let it finish, just se if it starts to write.
If not, possible the most likely cause is if the density type of the tape (eg. hcart/ hcart2 etc ...) does not match the density type of the drives.
Regards,
Martin (Symantec UK Senior engineer)
