Inventory vs Category

[undrcovr]

Im new to BE 10 and Ive got the basic backup jobs working. Can someone explain the difference between Inventory and Category? What are they used for? We do a full backup each night from M-F.

 

[SQLBill]

Inventory tells Backup Exec how many tapes are available, what slots they are in (if you have multiple slots) and what kind of tapes they are. Basically scans the barcodes on the tape.

Catalog tells Backup Exec what is ON the tapes. Reads the header(s) on the tape.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[undrcovr]

So basically if I have 5 tapes that need to be erased, they need to be inventoried? The reason I ask is because when I insert them, nothing shows up in online media. And when I highlight my drive in devices, it doesnt show a tape present.

 

[SQLBill]

That's because Veritas doesn't know the tapes are there. You need to run inventory so that Veritas will recognize the tapes.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[undrcovr]

I ran inventory on each tape, naming each one the day of the week. Should they be showing up in online media?

 

[SQLBill]

Do you have a tape library or just a single tape drive?

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[undrcovr]

A single tape drive. Its an HP Storageworks Dat72.

 

[SQLBill]

Ah....that's the issue. When you take the tape out, Veritas no longer recognizes it. Every time you put it back in, Veritas has to be told what it is (Inventory).

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[undrcovr]

Ah, makes sense. So with only one tape drive and multiple tapes I dont really need to run an inventory job?

 

[SQLBill]

Nope, the opposite. If you have a tape library where you insert the tapes once and they stay there. Then you only need to inventory them once - they are still be in the tape system. But if you don't have a library and you always eject a tape and put one back in, then you have to run inventory every time - Backup Exec doesn't know where the tape came from or what it is.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[SpongeBob12]

I have a question. I do understand the inventory process now, but I am suspecting that our 'tape management' personnel may not be inventorying tapes each time we change out tapes.
We have a single tape drive HP Ultrium-1 but we use incremental back ups every day (same tape) and a weekly full back up (different tape).
If we do not inventory the weekly tape when we put it in,
what happens? Would the back up job just fail or will my dta on the daily back up tape be over written?

 

[SQLBill]

Writing to a tape still depends on how the job and media are set up. Is your daily backup (incrementals) set up as a separate job (ie. one job for incrementals and one for full backup)? If it's separate jobs, next question is - how is the job set up? Is the job set up for append or overwrite? That will determine how the job writes to the tape. All inventory does is let Backup Exec recognize there is a tape available and what the tape is. Without doing inventory when a tape is first put in, BE might say that you need to insert a tape. But usually it just says the tape is unrecognizable and may still try to backup to it. It just won't know what size the tape is, what the tape is labeled, how much room is left, etc.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[getshorty]

Why is my Inventory menu item disabled on my single tape drive system? Catalog is available but not Inventory.