BE 8.6 doesn't write on tape from media set

[madmarco]

Hi all

Sometimes I really don't understand the behaviour of backupexec (8.6). Following configuration:

Application Defaults:

- Media overwrite protection level: None
- Media overwrite options: Overwrite recyclable media contained in the targeted media set before overwriting scratch media

Job Definitions:

- Full Backup: Overwrite Media / Media Set: Full
- Diff-Monday to Diff-Thursday: Append to media, overwrite if no appendable media is available / Media Set: 4 Media Sets, from monday to thursday with only one tape.

My device is an hp storageworks 1/8 autoloader. Last week, I inserted a new tape, inventorized the library, saw the new tape and named it "w4m4". Because it is a tape which belongs to the full media set, after labeling, I moved it from Scratch Media to the corresponding backup-set "Full". Today is monday, so I've taken a look if the full job has been running, and it did run, but backupexec has chosen a wrong tape. There was an alert "Overwriting allocated media Diff-Mo", which doesn't belong to the Full Media-Set, it belongs to the Diff-Mo media set.

I really don't know why backupexec doesn't use the media contained in the media set Full! This isn't the first time something like this happens, and the choosing process doesn't follow a specific pattern, it chooses tapes from various media sets for writing the full backup.

Has anybody got an idea?

Thank you in advance: Marco

 

[PaulC245]

We had the same problem with stand alone drives. If the operator forgets to change the tape, it gets used no matter what media set it is in. I contacted Veritas and the response is, it's designed to do that, although it is supposed to see if there are available tapes in the proper media set and the scratch set first.

They told me the only way to keep that from happening was to put overwrite protection on the media sets. We found that if we used overwrite protection, our backup rotation didn't work.

I don't consider this a good way to do itand have put in a request for product enhancement through Veritas' support website. No other product I have used will pull tapes from a different media set, even their own Netbackup. Why bother having media sets if the software ignores them?

 

[madmarco]

Yes, this behaviour is really stupid... now I just have to instruct people that work with backupexec that they have to label the tapes in correct order, so that they go back to scratch media... but the problem you've written still exists.

 

[ledzepe]

We have a Qualstar Tape Library model 4222 with 24 tape slots using 8mm 260Gb tapes. We have Veritas Backup Exec 8.6 running Mon-Fri incremental backup and Sat full backup. The Mon-Fri use one tape each and Sat uses two tapes. We are backing up seven NT4.0 servers totaling up to 300GB

Our problem is that on Sat full backup, it picks up the second tape but returns it on the slot without ever writting on the tape even though its new and just labelled.

Any suggestions?

 

[madmarco]

Hi Ledzepe

I'm doing more or less the same no with above config, but i've switched the media overwrite option to the other option (haven't got a backupexec system in front of me right now), which afaik uses first scratch media. The Differential Tapes are alle correctly appended or if theres no more space on tape left overwritten. The shit is, that you have to inventorize and label the full tapes in correct order as the full jobs are running. So configured, the full backup job doesn't find any media in its media set (let's call it full) and switches to scratch media. If recyclable option is set, it could also be possible to take a tape from the diff-sets (see the definition of recyclable media for more info).

Feel free to ask more, as i now solved my problem

 

[ledzepe]

I'm a new guy in our network group and this tape backup system is about seven months old. They've used to backup using DLTs but since our storage grew, they decided to switch to the Qualstar Tape Library.

Basically, use just put a barcoded label on the tapes (they are new tape, just out of the box) and put them on slot 6 and 7 which is defined as our Saturday full weekly backup. The tape drive do the labeling automatically.

For three Saturdays now and as soon as the first tape is full, the tape drive would pick up the second tape then reads it then return it back to the slot. There's no error message after this. It then picks up the first tape, reads it, detect it as used in the current job, gives an error and then stops the backup job. Here's are part of the log:
- - - - - - - - - - -
Drive and media information from media mount:
Robotic Library Name: QUALSTAR 1 >>>>>Picks up 2nd tape<<<<
Drive Name: SONY 1
Slot: 6
Media GUID: {92355603-7747-44D2-BB56-1D41EE8871B2}
Media Label: AAY601
Overwrite Protection Time Left: < 1 Hour
Append Time Left: Infinite
Targeted Media Set Name: Media Set 1
Backup set #25 on storage media #2

Drive and media information from media mount:
Robotic Library Name: QUALSTAR 1 >>>>>>This 1st tape again!
Drive Name: SONY 1
Slot: 7
Media GUID: {33C5ED65-0D60-4933-BECD-73217B810FA3}
Media Label: AAY602
Overwrite Protection Time Left: < 1 Hour
Append Time Left: Infinite
Targeted Media Set Name: Media Set 1
The media provided to continue the backup already contains data
from one or more sets created during this operation.
The operation can not be continued

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

 

[madmarco]

Hmm, have you taken a look at the time this happens? I see that the overwrite protection period is less than one hour, so i could imagine that if the first 260gb take longer than one hour (which it should, i think...) the media labeled aay602's overwrite protection period has already passed. if so, try to increase the overwrite protection period and test it. What did you mean with &quot;>>>>>>This 1st tape again!&quot; ? Your log file says, that it has chosen another tape?

 

[ledzepe]

Hi madmarco,

What did you mean with &quot;>>>>>>This 1st tape again!&quot; ?

We uses two tapes for our &quot;Saturday full weekly backup&quot; and we backup approximately 300GB. AAY602 is the first tape of the series and AAY601 is second tape. As soon as AAY602 is full, the tape drive picks up AAY601 but as you can see in the log, it did nothing. The drive picks up AAY602 again and stops the backup since AAY602 is the first tape of the series.

For this Saturday's backup, we'll be putting in two new tapes, AAY603 and AAY604. We didn't add or deleted anything on the backup scheme. The settnig for the &quot;Overwrite Protection Time...&quot; is the same as the backup we did a month ago and that didn't have any errors.

 

[SQLBill]

From your error log, it really looks like the Overwrite time for the second tape hasn't run out yet. Can you test it this weekend by changing the overwrite protection time to 0 (so there's no overwrite protection)?

-SQLBill

 

[ledzepe]

SQLBill,
Thanks for the advise, in fact its one the setting we plan to change this weekend.

 

[ledzepe]

Solved it!

Backup on two tapes won't work because I found out that we are backing up 60GB of compressed data therefore in effect we have more than 360GB of data. I excluded the 60GB compress and got the backup going.