Help with setting up tape library and media pools

[frdba]

We are using BAB r11.5 sp3 build 4402. We have a brand new tape library - Dell 124T. We have 16 slots. 1-15 are LTO2 tapes and slot 16 is the cleaning tape. I have setup a backup job that runs off a rotation schedule - 5-day weekly full backup with GFS enabled. The job created 3 media pools. When I look at the device it shows 15 tapes belonging to GROUP0 and all are labeled <Marked Blank Media>. All tapes in the library are brand new blank tapes.

When I try to execute the job I get the errors

W3550 Failed to connect to media.(MEDIA=<BLANK> [S/N: ],SEQ=0,EC=CAN NOT FIND THE TAPE TO BE CONNECTED)
N5940 Please mount one of the following media in device group GROUP0:
N5942 1. 4/09/08 10:30 PM [S/N:,SEQ:1] FRDBSR1_DLY
N5941 2. <BLANK>
N5929 Job will be cancelled in 5 minute(s).
W3550 Failed to connect to media.(MEDIA=<BLANK> [S/N: ],SEQ=0,EC=CAN NOT FIND THE TAPE TO BE CONNECTED)
E3831 Unable to find any media that can be used in this job.

I thought that since all tapes were blank that the job would automatically pull one to complete the job. I tried assigning a tape to the scratch set of the daily pool to see if it would write to it, but I get the same errors. Can someone give me direction on how to get this working?

Thanks

 

[frdba]

OK, so I figured it out. I thought that since the tapes were showing as <Marked Blank Media> that it meant the tapes were seen as blank (you know since they are brand new). I decided to do an erase on all the tapes in the library and they started showing up as <Blank Media>. My job now runs.

 

[davidmichel]

This is a result of the Device Configuration option Set Unknown Media As Blank.

 

[frdba]

Thanks for the explanation! This is my first time working with a tape library. I remember selecting that option, guess I didn't realize what that really meant. Little by little I'm figuring out and understanding more about it.

Thanks again.