there is Data expiration and Volume expiration.  Volume expiration is usually blank; that is normal.  Data expiration is based on policy schedule Retention.  You cannot move assigned media to Scratch; it is assigned if the tape has Data expiration.  If you are absolutely sure the images will never, ever be needed you can expire media via bpexpdate command.

As i understand if the tape has no image it will not have expiration date.

And if the tapes are assigned you will not be abe to move them in to different pool. You should expire them first running above mentioned command.

If the tapes have no expiration date it means that they have never been assigned. If it assigns media NB always put expiration date even if it will not be able to write.

nfs# bpexpdate -m 0050L3 -d 0     
Media 0050L3 is due to expire at 12/31/1969 19:00:00
Are you sure that the data on this media is not critical to
your business, and you are sure you want to delete 0050L3 y/n (n)? y
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

Thats the error I get when I run the bpexpdate command.  These tapes have been like this since 2009 from the previous administrator. They are not in any robot they are simply sitting on a shelf in a library, but we are running out of scratch tapes, So I've been going through media that hasn't been mounted in a long time and noticed many of them haven't expired and don't have an expiration date

Are you running this command from master server?

nfs# bpexpdate -m 0050L3 -d 0     
Media 0050L3 is due to expire at 12/31/1969 19:00:00
Are you sure that the data on this media is not critical to
your business, and you are sure you want to delete 0050L3 y/n (n)? y
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

That looks odd - the date is in the past.

Would be intersting to confirm there are really no images on the tape:

bpimmedia -mediaid 0050L3   (if that fails use -m 0050L3 , brain  fade, can't remember)

Next run ..

bpmedialist -m 0050L3   

If the date there shows as 1969, think you will need to log a call with Symantec, and the media cam be removed from EMM using manual SQL commands.

Martin

Yes, these are being run from the master server. Like i stated before, these are stored on a shelf (NOT IN ROBOT). Are they required to be in the tape library before running these commands?

I've seen this behavior before when a backup was canceled just after netbackup assignes a scratch to a volume pool but before it finishes writing data.

bash-3.00# bpexpdate -m 0312L3 -d 0
Media 0312L3 is due to expire at 12/31/1969 19:00:00
Are you sure that the data on this media is not critical to
your business, and you are sure you want to delete 0312L3 y/n (n)? y
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

bash-3.00# bpimmedia -mediaid 0312L3
no entity was found

bash-3.00# bpmedialist -m 0312L3    
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

By the way, what are the status of the tapes. If they are frozen just unfreeze them and NB will automatically expire them. As per you statement its expiration date on 1969 and if your servers time is correct it should already been expired. and only case NB will show that it has image even if it is exceeding expiration date when it`s state is frozen.

No, the tapes are not frozen, I saw a few that were and assumed that was the issues (for those anways) but the rest of them are most definitely active.

As for the expiration date of 1969, I'm sure netbackup assigns anything without an expiration date to 1969 the same way and expiration of (infinity) is set to expire in 2038.

From the sound of it you see no expiration date for Volume - this means the physical tape - some people only use there tapes for a few years and get rid of them - so they set a volume expiration  - this tells NB not to use if for backups any more.

But DATA expiration has to do with the backups written on the tape - if the tape still has a time assigned you cannot move the tape - 99% of the time you will have assigned and a Data expiration date- but if the tape was pulled for a backup that failed you will have assigned date but not Data expiration date - at that point you want to verify there are no valid images on the tape using the report "images on tape"

if no valid images you can 'expire' the tape by do the bpexpdate with a assigned of -d 0

if both time assigned and Data Expiration are blank - then you can move a tape to a different volume pool.

Last time I have seen this was pre-NBU 6.0 when databases were distributed across media servers and the databases (images, mediadb, voldb) got out of sync due to mediadb on media server getting damaged/lost, etc.

I agree with Martin - run nbcc and submit to Symantec Support.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH67840

Hmm, I wasn'tthinking of nbcc, but Mariannes suggestion would make finding the tapes easier.

So, plan.

Run nbcc , submit output to Symantec

Run /usr/openv/db/bin/nbdb_unload /some>directory  - submit this output also.

Martin - Symantec Uk TSE

Before you do that - please show us output of the following for ONE of these tapes:

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id>

It might be a simple case of available media that were not originally in Scratch pool and are therefore not automatically returned to scratch. The above output will tell us all we need to know about the status of the tape and associated images.

I have to agree with J Hinchcliffe above ....

If the tape is not assigned it has no valid images and so you cannot run a bpexpdate against it and will get the error that the media was not found in the EMM database - this is totally normal

31st December 1969 is the moment before Unix time began - a unix time of 0 is 00:00:00 Thursday 1st January 1970 - this is just a way of saying it has no time!

Hope this helps

PS " I have not tried any yet that have a time assigned." <-- bear in mind "trying" this will remove that tapes data from the catalog!

I am running NetBackup 7.1.0.3 on Windows 2008

When i run this command against an unnasigned tape I get exactly that message - maybe a Windows thing?

Hi Mark,

OK, you in that one, suspect you are right and this is windows specific - I'm on unix at the minute ...

M

Getting nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid <media-id> output will confirm our suspicions!

I ran bpexpdate command one of my tapes and when i checked bpdbm log i found this:

16:14:41.472 [6936.13984] <4> expdate_by_media_id: changing media 213054 to expiration date 12/31/1969 5:00:00 PM (0)

If you noticed same date as mentione above. I am not sure if it is related to each other. is it says that NB assigns date as 12/31/1969 for the tapes which is expired.Not sure if this helps.

I am getting same error. I just noticed. it was not happening before.

I start getting this "error requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database" for all my tapes. I tried to suspend, freeze and bpexpdate, all is giving same error. From GUI or command line.

i found this TN, not sure if this helps:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH58277

for me it didnt help, but same error.

One more addition, sorry for too many threads :)

this may help:

If there are database inconsistencies with a media, bpexpdate may not be able to expire it, though it lists as assigned.

For example, if a volume is assigned, it is normally expected that it would have a associated media server name recorded in the EMM database. This is the media server that currently "owns" the media.

If a volume is assigned, but does not have a media server listed in the EMM database, there is an inconsistency. Therefore, bpexpdate may not work and a procedure must be followed to ensure that the media is expired. Media in this sort of predicament may or may not have unexpired images associated with it.
 

try to change the media owner to any media server and run the bpexpdate command. In my case media had media owner and it had assign time, but was failing with above error. i changed the media owner to any other media server (i changed it to master actually) and ran the command and it is successful.

Just to clarify my thoughts on this again as the thread seems to be bouncing about a but .....

If you run a bpexpdate against a tape that is not assigned the command will not work as the tape does nit have any data in the catalog to expire - so you get the "not found in EMM" error
This is totally normal
It would also appear that the Unix bpexpdate binary just reports the error where as the Windows version prompts first, even if it is not assigned, and as a result displays a non date - something before time began in Unix date terms
I think that all of this is normal and there is no need to start worrying about catalog corruption

In summary - you can't expire a tape if it has nothing on it to expire
Hope this helps and all agree?

I agree, no sense in running  bpexpdate  if  data expiration  is blank; there is nothing to expire

Just want to make sure. Is the tape has Time assigned tab or it is blank? If it is blank what is the issue?

I think therefore, you actually have no issue.

Here is the vmquery output of an assigned tape :

When i search the catalog, these tapes have no images on them anyways. Before I send a support ticket (and wait a week to hear back) I'm going to move them all to scratch, This issue hasn't been happening since I've been the system admin so we will see what happens from here on out.

If they have no images and you can move them to scratch then as per my earlier entries I do not see you have any issue - this is just a thing particular to the Windows version of bpexpdate and I get exactly the same result and my catalog is just fine

I really dont think there is anything here for you to worry about but if you do open a ticket let us know what they say

Here's a tape with a time assigned but no expiration. It is not frozen. Below are all the commands I ran and their results. The one thing i noticed about this media that is different then all the others is when you look at the GUI, one of the colums says "application"

All of the other tapes under application say "0 - netbackup", this media says "1"

bash-3.00# bpmedialist -m 0279L3
requested media id is not assigned to this host in the EMM database

bash-3.00# bpimmedia -mediaid 0279L3
no entity was found

bash-3.00# bpexpdate -m 0279L3 -d 0
Media 0279L3 is due to expire at 12/31/1969 19:00:00
Are you sure that the data on this media is not critical to
your business, and you are sure you want to delete 0279L3 y/n (n)? y
server name not found in the NetBackup configuration

bash-3.00# nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 0279L3
NBEMMCMD, Version:7.0
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     51886382-60af-11de-8000-8950124c22c6
Media ID:                       0279L3                              
Partner:                        -                                   
Media Type:                     HCART3                              
Volume Group:                   000_00001_TLD                       
Application:                    Catalog                             
Media Flags:                    1                                   
Description:                    Added by Media Manager              
Barcode:                        000279L3                            
Partner Barcode:                --------                            
Last Write Host:                NONE                                
Created:                        06/24/2009 15:08                    
Time Assigned:                  06/24/2009 15:11                    
First Mount:                    06/24/2009 15:19                    
Last Mount:                     03/11/2011 13:55                    
Volume Expiration:              -                                   
Data Expiration:                -                                   
Last Written:                   -                                   
Last Read:                      -                                   
Robot Type:                     TLD                                 
Robot Control Host:             NFS                                 
Robot Number:                   1                                   
Slot:                           30                                  
Side/Face:                      -                                   
Cleanings Remaining:            -                                   
Number of Mounts:               41                                  
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0                                   
Media Status:                   ACTIVE                              
Kilobytes:                      0                                   
Images:                         0                                   
Valid Images:                   0                                   
Retention Period:               -                                   
Number of Restores:             0                                   
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0                                   
Last Header Offset:             0                                   
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE                                
Master Host:                                                        
Server Group:                                                       
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:                                             
Pool Number:                    1                                   
Volume Pool:                    NetBackup                           
Previous Pool Name:             -                                   
Vault Flags:                    -                                   
Vault Container:                -                                   
Vault Name:                     -                                   
Vault Slot:                     -                                   
Session ID:                     -                                   
Date Vaulted:                   -                                   
Return Date:                    -                                   
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

sounds like a media server was removed but not decommissioned

you could try  bpmedia -movedb -m 0279L3 -newserver  mediaservername

We've been wating for nbemmcmd output for 9 days now!

Seems 0279L3  was previously used for Cold Catalog Backup.

Please post output of  bpsyncinfo -L

Since it was last used/mounted almost a year ago (03/11/2011 13:55 ) you can probably recycle it to be re-used. See this TN for instructions: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH56392

Please verify that you have a policy for Hot Catalog backups.

***EDIT ****

Forget about bpsyncinfo - you are on 7.1. Only Hot Catalog backup is supported.

These tapes were probably used in previous version for cold catalog backups.
Steps in TN will work to recycle.

and if you want to compare a working tape (278) with a problem tape (279) here you go

nfs# nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 0279L3    
NBEMMCMD, Version:7.0
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     51886382-60af-11de-8000-8950124c22c6
Media ID:                       0279L3                              
Partner:                        -                                   
Media Type:                     HCART3                              
Volume Group:                   000_00001_TLD                       
Application:                    Catalog                             
Media Flags:                    1                                   
Description:                    Added by Media Manager              
Barcode:                        000279L3                            
Partner Barcode:                --------                            
Last Write Host:                NONE                                
Created:                        06/24/2009 15:08                    
Time Assigned:                  06/24/2009 15:11                    
First Mount:                    06/24/2009 15:19                    
Last Mount:                     03/11/2011 13:55                    
Volume Expiration:              -                                   
Data Expiration:                -                                   
Last Written:                   -                                   
Last Read:                      -                                   
Robot Type:                     TLD                                 
Robot Control Host:             NFS                                 
Robot Number:                   1                                   
Slot:                           30                                  
Side/Face:                      -                                   
Cleanings Remaining:            -                                   
Number of Mounts:               41                                  
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0                                   
Media Status:                   ACTIVE                              
Kilobytes:                      0                                   
Images:                         0                                   
Valid Images:                   0                                   
Retention Period:               -                                   
Number of Restores:             0                                   
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0                                   
Last Header Offset:             0                                   
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE                                
Master Host:                                                        
Server Group:                                                       
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:                                             
Pool Number:                    1                                   
Volume Pool:                    NetBackup                           
Previous Pool Name:             -                                   
Vault Flags:                    -                                   
Vault Container:                -                                   
Vault Name:                     -                                   
Vault Slot:                     -                                   
Session ID:                     -                                   
Date Vaulted:                   -                                   
Return Date:                    -                                   
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

nfs# nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid 0278L3
NBEMMCMD, Version:7.0
====================================================================
Media GUID:                     c8f77c36-7e0f-11df-8000-a409bc2685f8
Media ID:                       0278L3                              
Partner:                        -                                   
Media Type:                     HCART3                              
Volume Group:                   ---                                 
Application:                    Netbackup                           
Media Flags:                    1                                   
Description:                    Added by Media Manager              
Barcode:                        000278L3                            
Partner Barcode:                --------                            
Last Write Host:                NONE                                
Created:                        06/22/2010 19:06                    
Time Assigned:                  -                                   
First Mount:                    06/23/2010 08:03                    
Last Mount:                     10/26/2011 15:46                    
Volume Expiration:              -                                   
Data Expiration:                -                                   
Last Written:                   10/26/2011 15:45                    
Last Read:                      -                                   
Robot Type:                     NONE                                
Robot Control Host:             -                                   
Robot Number:                   -                                   
Slot:                           -                                   
Side/Face:                      -                                   
Cleanings Remaining:            -                                   
Number of Mounts:               34                                  
Maximum Mounts Allowed:         0                                   
Media Status:                   ACTIVE                              
Kilobytes:                      0                                   
Images:                         0                                   
Valid Images:                   0                                   
Retention Period:               -                                   
Number of Restores:             0                                   
Optical Header Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Sector Size Bytes:      0                                   
Optical Partition Size Bytes:   0                                   
Last Header Offset:             0                                   
Adamm Guid:                     00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Rsm Guid:                       00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Origin Host:                    NONE                                
Master Host:                    NFS                                 
Server Group:                                                       
Upgrade Conflicts Flag:                                             
Pool Number:                    4                                   
Volume Pool:                    Scratch_Pool                        
Previous Pool Name:             NetBackup                           
Vault Flags:                    -                                   
Vault Container:                -                                   
Vault Name:                     -                                   
Vault Slot:                     -                                   
Session ID:                     -                                   
Date Vaulted:                   -                                   
Return Date:                    -                                   
====================================================================
Command completed successfully.

7.0/7.1 same thing as far as cold catalog backup is concerned.

As I've said - forget bpsyncinfo. That is for pre-7.x.

These tapes were probably used for cold catalog backups before NBU was upgraded to 7.0.

Use steps in TN listed above to recycle old cold catalog tapes.

I followed TN's steps, how ever, when using the GUI to Label the tapes, i get this error

expected media 0279L3; found NetBackup database backup media