Why does my backup fail with error: "Invalid Physical Volume Library Argument"

There is little or no help at Veritas's support knowledge base regarding this problem. The general indications from the forums tell you to try the obvious things: reinstall the software, reinstall the device drivers. Personally, I also tried a new drive, different OS, new tapes and an updated version of Veritas. The error reported in the job log is:

[color red]
OFO: Started for device: "C:"


Storage device "DEVICENAME" reported an error on a request to query entity information.

Error reported:
Invalid Physical Volume Library Argument.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
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The way I found to fix this problem is to replace a corrupted media library .mdb file that Backup Exec uses to store information on devices and media. This is a file called pvl.mdb in the Backup Exec\NT directory. Simply rename this file or move it somewhere else. Then copy the pvl.mdb file from the installation files CD. Put this new file where the old one was, and change it from read-only (if you copied it from CD it will be read only). You also need to change overwrite protection settings in the Media tab in the program (right click media set 1 and then properties).

This should get rid of the corrupted media database.

I should stress at this point that you will lose the data contained in that file of any media sets you have. However this will fix the persistant problem which may become increasingly irritating. (You will not lose the data held on the backup tapes themselves, or the catalogs of backup history which you would need for restoring data)

More information and screen shots at the following URLS:

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/237368.htm

or a keyword search on "corrupted pvl.mdb" at Veritas's knowledge base:

http://support.veritas.com/

Good luck!

Chris Kenworthy.