tapes manually put into one pool, but being reassigned to scratch later

[mrinella]

Hi, using bar code rules, I am manually assigning some tapes to a particular pool when they are being loaded into my library.  That is working fine, but the next morning, all of the tapes in that pool that did not get used for jobs overnight are being reassigned to the scratch pool, which I don't want to happen.   Is there something in the pool's configuration that forces it to send all blank tapes to the scratch pool?

Thanks

[J_H_Is_gone]

seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/323334.htm  Expired media are not returned to the scratch pool automatically    ( I know it is not what you said but it has some info that may apply - to fixing your issue with just these tapes and not effect all tapes)

check your bp.conf for the line
RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes"

this would then make the volume go back to the scratch pool.

[J_H_Is_gone]

a NO would make sure it did not go there.
but....... it would also prevent any other media from going back to the scratch pool as well... can you live with that?

[Will_Restore]

Night shift is reallocating empty tapes?  :)

[mrinella]

No, I cant live with that.

[mrinella]

When it comes to our backup system, I am the night shift and day shift.  Sometimes swing shift as well.
Also, I did check for that type of gremlin and no one had logged in over night.

[Marianne]

Starting with NBU 4.5 MP3, NetBackup started to return tapes back to Scratch automatically.
In 6.x, the functionality is controlled by EMM.

Have a look at output from ' nbemmcmd -listsettings -machinename <master>' Look for the line listed below towards end of output.

This is output from my lab server with no modifications:

RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes"

You can change this with nbemmcmd -changesetting ..........


Admin Guide I also says the following about Scratch pool:

A scratch pool is a special volume pool from which NetBackup can transfer volumes to another volume pool when that pool has no volumes available. When the images on a volume expire, NetBackup returns it to the scratch volume pool if it was assigned from the scratch pool.

[Omar_Villa]

Is there any script moving your media? if you dont have teh return unassgnied media setting enabled maybe there is something running in your background that you are not aware of.

[Stumpr2]

I am the night shift and day shift.  Sometimes swing shift as well....

LOL, don't forget the all inclusive holiday shift, especially when a three day weekend is generally used for server and application upgrades :)

[Stumpr2 · Accepted solution]

I accidently deleted the wrong thread.

OK, There is a department called "stingy" that buys a bunch of tapes and does not want to share them with the other departments. Create a volume pool called stingy and a barcode rule to place all of the stingy tapes into the stingy volume pool when they are first injected into the library.Now create the stingy netbackup policies to use the stingy volume pool. When a backup runs it will pull a tape from the stingy pool and write to it. Sometime later all images written to the tape will expire. The tape will become  unassigned and will remain in the stingy pool for future use. At no time in this tapes lifetime will it ever be a member of the scratch pool.

One day all the stingy tapes have been used and there are no more tapes available in the stingy pool. Netbackup will pull a tape from scratch and place it into the stingy volume pool. This tape is written to but eventually all images will expire and the tape will become unassigned. A decision needs to be made to either keep the tape in the stingy volume pool or to put it back into the scratch pool. Since this tape is not an original "stingy" tape then it should be placed back into the scatch pool. The following entry will accomplish that task.

RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes"

Now it seems that the use of the string RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL effects the first scenario tapes? I don't doubt what you are seeing. I would follow Judy's advise and set the value of the string to "no".
It currently is set to "yes" unless you actively change it to "no".

DOCUMENTATION: Certain bp.conf entries, vm.conf entries, and touch files are now set using nbemmcmd in VERITAS NetBackup (tm) 6.0.
http://support.veritas.com/docs/278996

To see which settings are now configured using nbemmcmd run the following command:
# cd /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd
# ./nbemmcmd -listsettings -machinename <media server>

The following configuration settings were found:

ALLOW_MULTIPLE_RETENTIONS_PER_MEDIA="no"

DISABLE_DISK_STU_JOB_THROTTLING="no"

DISABLE_STANDALONE_DRIVE_EXTENSIONS="no"

MEDIA_REQUEST_DELAY="0"

MUST_USE_LOCAL_DRIVE="no"

NON_ROBOTIC_MEDIA_ID_PREFIX="A"

MAX_REALLOC_TRIES="1000"

DISALLOW_NONNDMP_ON_NDMP_DRIVE="no"

DO_NOT_EJECT_STANDALONE="yes"

DONT_USE_SLAVE="no"

DRIVE_ERROR_THRESHOLD="2"

MEDIA_ERROR_THRESHOLD="2"

TIME_WINDOW="12"

RETURN_UNASSIGNED_MEDIA_TO_SCRATCH_POOL="yes"

VAULT_CLEAR_MEDIA_DESC="no"

These values can be changed using either the Host Properties in the NetBackup Administration Console or the nbemmcmd -changesetting <options> -machinename <media_server> command. Setting these options in the bp.conf, vm.conf or by creating touch files will have no effect.

[mferraz_garcia]

Thanks for all!!! These command save-me.

Stumpr, congratulations about your explanation.