Accepted Solutions
As you are new I am going to cover this two ways.
1) have tapes whose physical expiration date is shorter than I'd like. How do I change that date?
there are two different dates that most people new to NB need to learn the difference.
You said the expiration date of the TAPE (this is different from the expiration date of the backup IMAGE.
Lets look at Tape first.
the expiration date of a tape - refers to the PHYSICAL tape.
Say you purchased a new tape and you don't want to use for more then 3 years.
So you can set an expiration date of 3 years from today -
You can see this by going to Media in the GUI - right click a tape - choose change
You see here that I do not set a date, you also have the option of setting the number of times a tape mounts. I don't do that either ( most people don't seem to). If you set this then once the date is reached NB will no longer write to the tape, but you can still restore from it.
Now if you mean the expiration date of a of the Images on a tape - meaning when you look at the media and you see the Data Expiration for that media - this has to do with when will the IMAGES on that tape expire and the tape become a scratch tape again.
To change that you would use the bpexpdate command at the command line.
(below is from help)
bpexpdate - change expiration date of backups in image catalog and media in media catalog
SYNOPSIS
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -m media_id -d date | 0 |
infinity [-host name] [-force] [-nodelete] [-notimmediate] [-M
master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -deassignempty [-m
media_id] [-force] [-M master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -backupid backup_id -d date
| 0 | infinity [-client name] [-copy number] [-force] [-nodelete]
[-notimmediate] [-M master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -recalculate [-backupid
backup_id] [-copy number] [-d date | 0 | infinity] [-client name]
[-policy name] [-ret retention_level] [-sched type] [-M
master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -stype server_type [-dp
disk_pool_name [-dv disk_volume]] [-nodelete] [-notimmediate] [-M
master_server,...]
I would suggest you search for the work recalculate on this forum for many examples and find the one that you need. As you can change the date of each image on the tape or all images on the tape.
2)how can i clean the tapes and drives? How often should I clean my drives?
You don't clean tapes, but if you think you have bad tapes and want to get them cleaned and re-certified you would have to work with an outside vendor like DataSPAN to have that done.
As to cleaning of drives - two different schools on that one.
Some people set up the cleaning tapes in NB and let NB clean the drives - but every little issue NB has could cause it to clean the drive - which could be too often. Cleaning drives more then needed wears out the heads and shortens the life span of your drives.
Some people let the library do the cleaning when the Tape drive asks for it.. This means using your library interface to give it the cleaning tapes and let it do the cleaning when needed. This does mean some setup on your part with the library to either check that the tapes still have uses and change the out when they do not, or having your library email when the cleaning tape has been used up so you can change it out.
Again here I will say search this forum for cleaning tapes and you can read the many many different ways it is done. Some people don't assign tapes at all and clean them by hand (putting the cleaning tape in each drive) once a month.
Hope that helps some.
As you are new I am going to cover this two ways.
1) have tapes whose physical expiration date is shorter than I'd like. How do I change that date?
there are two different dates that most people new to NB need to learn the difference.
You said the expiration date of the TAPE (this is different from the expiration date of the backup IMAGE.
Lets look at Tape first.
the expiration date of a tape - refers to the PHYSICAL tape.
Say you purchased a new tape and you don't want to use for more then 3 years.
So you can set an expiration date of 3 years from today -
You can see this by going to Media in the GUI - right click a tape - choose change
You see here that I do not set a date, you also have the option of setting the number of times a tape mounts. I don't do that either ( most people don't seem to). If you set this then once the date is reached NB will no longer write to the tape, but you can still restore from it.
Now if you mean the expiration date of a of the Images on a tape - meaning when you look at the media and you see the Data Expiration for that media - this has to do with when will the IMAGES on that tape expire and the tape become a scratch tape again.
To change that you would use the bpexpdate command at the command line.
(below is from help)
bpexpdate - change expiration date of backups in image catalog and media in media catalog
SYNOPSIS
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -m media_id -d date | 0 |
infinity [-host name] [-force] [-nodelete] [-notimmediate] [-M
master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -deassignempty [-m
media_id] [-force] [-M master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -backupid backup_id -d date
| 0 | infinity [-client name] [-copy number] [-force] [-nodelete]
[-notimmediate] [-M master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -recalculate [-backupid
backup_id] [-copy number] [-d date | 0 | infinity] [-client name]
[-policy name] [-ret retention_level] [-sched type] [-M
master_server,...]
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpexpdate -stype server_type [-dp
disk_pool_name [-dv disk_volume]] [-nodelete] [-notimmediate] [-M
master_server,...]
I would suggest you search for the work recalculate on this forum for many examples and find the one that you need. As you can change the date of each image on the tape or all images on the tape.
2)how can i clean the tapes and drives? How often should I clean my drives?
You don't clean tapes, but if you think you have bad tapes and want to get them cleaned and re-certified you would have to work with an outside vendor like DataSPAN to have that done.
As to cleaning of drives - two different schools on that one.
Some people set up the cleaning tapes in NB and let NB clean the drives - but every little issue NB has could cause it to clean the drive - which could be too often. Cleaning drives more then needed wears out the heads and shortens the life span of your drives.
Some people let the library do the cleaning when the Tape drive asks for it.. This means using your library interface to give it the cleaning tapes and let it do the cleaning when needed. This does mean some setup on your part with the library to either check that the tapes still have uses and change the out when they do not, or having your library email when the cleaning tape has been used up so you can change it out.
Again here I will say search this forum for cleaning tapes and you can read the many many different ways it is done. Some people don't assign tapes at all and clean them by hand (putting the cleaning tape in each drive) once a month.
Hope that helps some.
