more than one tape in stand alone drive

[AndresV]

Hi guys,

I´ve been trying to find some information but is kinda confussion, I still have some questions I hope you can help me.

My enviroment is like this

A) Windows server 2012 (physical) - Master Server - 8.1.1

B) Windows server 2012 (physical) - Media Server - 8.1.1 - Backup to disk MSDP

C) Windows server 2012 (physical) - Media Server - 8.0 - Backup to tape ( standalone tape drive attached)

1.) I trying to duplicate images that are on server B to tape but I´m getting this error:

Dec 28, 2018 9:50:51 AM - Error nbjm (pid=2300) NBU status: 96, EMM status: No media is available

Dec 28, 2018 9:50:53 AM - end Duplicate; elapsed time 0:00:43

unable to allocate new media for backup, storage unit has none available  (96)

I think the error is because server B doesn't see server C through SAN but I would like to be sure?

2.) the attached standalone tape drive is LTO4, what would happen if the backup is 3 TB? Netbackup is going to ask me for a new tape or the job will fail?

[Marianne]

Always best to have disk and tape attached to same media server.
If different media servers, duplication will read from disk on MediaServer1 and send data across the network to MediaServer2. 
If tape drive is SAN attached, it can be zoned to both media servers and SSO license will enable usage on both media servers (not simultaneously, though).

About Standalone tape drive - 
NBU is an enterprise product. Although it supports standalone tape, it really does not play well with it and requires way too much manual intervention. 

For multi-tape jobs, you need to pre-add and pre-label tapes.

See my post over here: https://vox.veritas.com/t5/NetBackup/Standalone-Tape-how-to-proceed-if-the-second-tape-is-requried/m...

Say you have 6 physical tapes and you decide to put labels/stickers on them:
A00001
A00002
A00003
A00004
A00005
A00006

You next go to Media Gui and add new volumes: A00001 - 6
Ensure density matches that of the tape drive and select a pool. 

Once added, you insert tape A00001 into the tape drive, wait for the 'Ready' light on the drive, then use bplabel :
bplabel -m A00001 -d <hcart> -o -p <NetBackup> -u 0

Repeat for rest of tapes.

So, when A00001 is full, NBU will prompt you to load next available media in the drive.

If you do not pre-add tapes and simply rely on NBU to use the tape that is in the drive, and the tape gets full, there will be no available tapes for NBU to display a mount request.
Job will fail with status 96.

There is also a section in NBU Admin Guide II about tape selection and management with standalone drives. You may want to look it up to see best practice recommendations.

[AndresV]

Thanks Marianne for such an useful response,

To be honest I forgot to pre add nor pre label all tapes I needed. The job is about 24 TB and the standalone tape drive is LTO4 technology (2 TB), so I have 2 questions.

After the first tape is full the job will fail?? Do I have time to pre add the rest of the tapes before the job fail?

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

Hopefully you have at least added more media-id's in Media GUI. 
And hopefully all tapes are new with no existing tape label.

When existing tape fills up, NBU will prompt for the next media-id. 
When you insert the tape, and no label is found, bptm should write the label and proceed with the backup.

I say should, as I have never needed to test this.
My theory is based on the default way that NBU uses media in Standalone tape drives (as described in Admin Guide II).

PS:
PLEASE remember to add external label that corresponds with the media-id.