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All overwritable tapes are set to Overwrite protected, causing backup que..

Updated: 21 May 2010 | 6 comments
Jessica Engelbrekt's picture
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We are running Backup Exec 10d on 4 servers, and on each one we have 4 tapes for full backup and 4 for diff backup. 1 tape is normally used for full backup Fridays, and 1 for diff backups Mon-Thursdays. For a time now we often get problem with the backups, since the device seems to "touch" all the tapes in the drive, setting their status to Overwrite protected, even when they were overwritable at the beginning of backup. Then backup exec cannot find a tape that is overwritable, and the backup stops "queued". To solve this, we can run an Inventory before backup, which usually works, but now we're getting problems on one of our servers, since the device is going offline when we run an Inventory...
Does anyone know what to do?

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priya khire's picture
28
Dec
2005
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Hello,

What tape are you using for the backups? Is it a standalone tape or a library? What are the media set properties of the media set where it belongs?

Are you running an Overwrite job or an append job? Check if you get any media related alerts in the alerts tab within backup exec. Note that the overwriteable media is seen in blue colour.

Refer to the following technotes for more information on the append and overwrite periods:

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265
http://support.veritas.com/docs/237374

Revert with details if the issue persists.

Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.

Regards.

Ken Putnam's picture
28
Dec
2005
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Assuming (I know, I know) that this is a library, have you considered setting up partitions, and pointing the jobs to individual pertitions rather than the library as a whole?

If this response answers your concern, please mark it as a "solution"

Anders Eliasson's picture
29
Dec
2005
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Hi

The full and diff jobs are running on different partitions configured in backup exec. The tape device is an Dell Powervault 122T that holds 8 LTO-tapes. The full jobs are configured as media rotation full, overwrite protected for 2 weeks, appendible 6 days. The diff jobs are configured as media differential, overwrite protected for 3 weeks and appendible for 5 days. Backup exec is also configured to overwrite scratch media. It's seems to us as when the backupjob starts, it looks at the tapes (or maybe when we are doing an inventory), and when it has looked at a tape it labels the tape with a name (if the tape is new) and it also writes information to the tape (or to the backup exec database) that the tape is used and can not be reused for x numbers of weeks. Is this a configureation error in backup exec or could it be a configuration error inte the tape library? Any tips fo a solution?

Rucha Abhyankar's picture
02
Jan
2006
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Hello,

Let us know what options you have configured in Tools>Options>Media management


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Jessica Engelbrekt's picture
03
Jan
2006
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Media overwrite protection level: Partial
Media overwrite options: Overwrite scratch media before overwriting recyclable media...

Renuka -'s picture
05
Jan
2006
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Hello jessica,
Please select the appropritae media set in the backup job.
NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answeredand would be moved toanswered questions pool.