Duplication tab > Advanced configuration checkbox > New (or Change) > Number of read drives = 2 (or more)

Specifying 2 will mean two read drives and two write drives, using total four drives for two simultaneous duplication jobs.

Since I have "Removable media and/or disk"  "Number of read drives 4" selected under Source in the Duplication tab, there already exists an entry in the Advanced configuration window for this media server (Read Drives 4) and this storage unit (the attached robot - 4 Write Drives).  The GUI will not allow me to add a duplicate entry.  I thought this configuration would allow multiple tape drives to be used during the copy-to-tape from my dedupe pool.  No go.

Are you using Storage Lifecycle policies for this duplication or actually using vault?

Could you provide the outputs of:

bpstulist -U

nbstl -L

Also your version of NetBackup etc.

Thanks

Netbackup 7.1.0.2 on master server, media servers and clients.  Solaris 10 on master and one media server.  Windows Server 2008 R2 on other media server. 

Output from nbstl -L "no entity was found"

This is a dark site, so I cannot cut and paste the output of the bpstulist -U command.  However, the output lists Storage Unit Type: Media Manager for each my master server and both media servers. Storage Unit Type: Disk, Storage Unit Subtype: Diskpool for the dedupe diskpool on each of my two media servers.

I am not using Storage Lifecycle policies.  I'm using vault.

Ok - then I am guessing that on the Duplication tab of your vault profile you have left it as the default of 1 in the destination section (just after where you have specified the destination tape storage unit)

If you have left the source backup resides on disk and tape you need to change the number of read drives in that section to change the destination.

If you select disk only in the source then you can set the number of tape drives manaually

Similar question with no solution: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/dup...

TN that describes how drives are selected in Vault jobs: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH69241

Have you checked your Duplication tab of your vault profile yet as I covered in my post above?

Thanks

wrobbins is correct. On Duplication tab, under Source, "Removable media and/or disk" is selected with Number of read drives: 4.  This automatically sets the number of Write drives to 4, under Destination. The value can't be set manually. The vault job still only used one tape drive.  If, under Source, I select "Disk only", I can then manually set the number of Write drives to 4 (or whatever) under Destination.   Running the vault job with this setting also only used one tape drive.

OK - thanks for that

Could I see three things please

1. the output of bpstulist -U

2. your vault.xml file (\netbackup\db\vault\)

3. A session summary log from your \netbackup\vault\sessions\ directory

Thanks

#edit# - forgot you are dark site - just whatever you can then from the above

An abreviated output from bpstulist -U was provided above.   The vault.xml file is considerable and would take an enormous effort to hand type and sanitize.  What are you looking for in the session summary log?  Any particular line I can provide?

Ok - can never really tell what I am looking for until I spot it!
Don't know if it is acceptable to pm me the details?

Have you had a look at http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH69241 yet?

It describes what to look for in the vault session log to see how duplication jobs are divided into batches.

The amount of batches determines the amount of drives that will be assigned. Extract:

VAULT will first match and sort previous backups by retention level and place the backups into batch jobs for duplication. If the vault profile contains multiple write devices each batch is assigned a different write device.

Note: NetBackup VAULT does not sort and create batches per size.