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error 98 erasing tape before running backup.

Scouser1
Level 3

Is there a specific setting that needs to be set or media server to run in order to erase tapes?

We have two sites which Netbackup 7.5 manage our backups.

Our local one, where I am, has got LTO6 drives installed and the other site, LTO5 drives.

Locally we erase tapes daily before running backups, no problem.

On the other site, I get error 98.

 

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Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

The first thing i have to ask if "Why?"

I dont think i have ever come across a customer who erases tapes - on rare occasions they may need to label one but an erase just puts wear and tear on the tape and the tape drives and i can see no reason to do it.

Other than that to get to your issuse can you run an all log entries report for the period when the happened so that we can see more detail on what causes the error - also the details from the erase job and anything of note that appears in the event viewer (application or system) on the media server

I assume that you are not trying to use LTO6 tapes on LTO5 drives?

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5 REPLIES 5

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

The first thing i have to ask if "Why?"

I dont think i have ever come across a customer who erases tapes - on rare occasions they may need to label one but an erase just puts wear and tear on the tape and the tape drives and i can see no reason to do it.

Other than that to get to your issuse can you run an all log entries report for the period when the happened so that we can see more detail on what causes the error - also the details from the erase job and anything of note that appears in the event viewer (application or system) on the media server

I assume that you are not trying to use LTO6 tapes on LTO5 drives?

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

There is no need in NBU to erase tapes, label them (or do anything for that matter) before writing to them.

A new tape will be labelled when 1st backup is written and previously used tapes where all images have expired will simply be overwritten when used again.

What is the status of the tapes where you get status 98?
Show us output of this command for one of the tapes:

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id>

Scouser1
Level 3

2014/07/11 11:33:51 AM - begin Erase
2014/07/11 11:33:51 AM - started process bplabel (21624)
2014/07/11 11:33:51 AM - requesting resource NetBackup:A00000
2014/07/11 11:33:51 AM - Error nbjm(pid=3804) NBU status: 830, EMM status: No drives are available    
2014/07/11 11:33:52 AM - end Erase; elapsed time: 00:00:01
error requesting media (tpreq)(98)

Above is the erase session message, below is the message in the detailed status log.

Just to clarify why we have to erase, is to remove the header or index entry on the tape in order to have the tape inventoried into the EMM database. Note the barcode label name: "01D401" and the the freezing of the tape. Hope this make more sense.

2014/07/09 05:17:02 PM - Error bptm(pid=13316) incorrect media found in drive index 3, expected 01D401, found 01D402, FREEZING 01D401
2014/07/09 05:17:08 PM - current media 01D401 complete, requesting next resource Any
2014/07/09 05:19:03 PM - Info bptm(pid=13316) Waiting for mount of media id 01D402 (copy 1) on server zaptbk03.dot.co.za. 

 

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Where is this media id coming from if there are barcodes on the tapes?

requesting resource NetBackup:A00000

A000... is NBU default when there are no barcode labels on tapes. Is there a problem with the barcode on this tape? Best to eject it and have a look.

... expected 01D401, found 01D402 ... 

says to me that there is (or was at some stage) a problem with device mapping on this server - drive position in robot mapped to wrong OS device name.
This happens when there is no persistent binding between OS device names and HBA driver.

If you are 100% sure that the tape in the drive is indeed 01D401, you need to de-select the 'Verify label' tick box to force overwrite of internal label.

RonCaplinger
Level 6

Scouser1, I have to repeat what Marianne and Mark have already said: there is no reason to have to erase tapes or relabel them in order to reuse them once all data on them has expired from the NBU catalog.

Once the data on a tape expires, the tape should then appear in your NBU "scratch" pool.  There is nothing you need to do (normally), as NBU should pull tapes from the scratch pool into the pools as they are needed on the next write.  There is no need to rewrite the header/index/label again.

Do you have a specific reason to erase tapes manually like this?