MEDIA SETS

[bbos360]

Thankyou in advance for any advise on this...

Using backup exec I have successfully used a brand new set of backup disks (seven 40 gigabyte disks). I am now trying to use these disks again (as most people do) but keep getting 'Please insert overwritable media'??? No other setting have changed.

If i delete the media set (which worked for the first time use of all 7 new disks) and create a new one (and set append period 1 hour again.., ) backup works fine again - after repointing backup to use this new set.

What am I doing wrong...why do I have to keep having to create new media set when all disks in the current set have been used once??

Any assistance would be much appreciated..

 

[SQLBill]

I backup to tapes..so I don't know if there's anything different with backing up to disk.

The only thing I can think of to check is, what is your overwrite period set to? Maybe the disks are set to not allow overwrite or the overwrite period is set too high (i.e. for one month when it needs to overwrite every two weeks).

-SQLBill

 

[PalmStrike]

Hi there, i am by no means an expert, but I have had this problem myself.

if you go into the back up job properties, on the first page is a box that says When this job begins, I have this set to Overwrite media.

then if you go to tools - options - media overwrite, I have checked the Media overwrite protection level to None.

then on the backup tab (nextone from the Media overwrite) I have overwrite media in there.

then if you go back to the main screen, on the media tab at the bottom, go to the media set you are dealing with, then you have to highlight each one individually in the right pane, but then right click on the medial set in the left pane, and you will see an append period box, this I have set to 0 hours.

Now this is how i have ours set up, and it bypasses that whole insert allocated media stuff. You will however get a message saying "overwrite allocated media" but you can set backup exec to deal with that one on it's own, if it doesn't do it by default. but we have a simple backup onto one tape per night, and i am very carefull as to which tape I put in for the next job. I am sure that the whole system is an extremely useful tool as to protection of data, i.e. you don't want to wipe yesterdays data by mistake, but I have not had time to actually play with that as yet, but I will be very shortly.

I hope that this helps.

 

[bbos360]

Sorry for any confsion..when i say disks i mean tapes not hard disks.

I will have a look at my settings again

 

[SQLBill]

AH, TAPES, that's different. Do check the overwrite protection. But have you removed the tapes at any time? Could the write protection slider have been moved so that the tape is read only?

-SQLBill

 

[bbos360]

All 7 tapes are brand new out of the box - no one but me has access to them, I tried the other day moving the protection slider on the disk just on the *extreme* off chance but it is fine.
Overwrite media
Protection Period = NONE
Append period = 1 hour

all disks worked on these settings fine FIRST time round i.e tape 1, tape 2....tape7 but when the cycle began again i.e tape 1 was put in the drive for the SECOND time 'Insert Overwritable media appears.

if i delete the old media set and create a new one with EXACTLY the same settings all ok for the first run but once i use tape 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 for the second time same error msg

Do you have to give each disk in the media set a particular name or something... as it doesnt want to overwrite a disk which has already been used

 

[PalmStrike]

Check over all the settings I just mentioned, if one of those is set to append, then it will ask for overwriteable media.

once you have set them all, and stopped and restarted the services, you should not have a problem.

Overwriteable media, Scratch media, and recycled media is all to do with the level of overwrite protection, and if you have no overwrite protection and everywhere says to overwrite, you should be fine.

Veritas as far as I can see, sets a level of overwrite protection as a default, so you do have to change this.

 

[SQLBill]

Are you using an autoloader?
If yes, do the tapes have barcode labels?
If no to either of the above, have you used the Label Media function to label the tapes?


-SQLBill

 

[bbos360]

No - I will look up documents on labeling the disks - maybe this is where I am going wrong?

 

[SQLBill]

I'm not sure, but I think it might solve the issue.

Go to the DEVICE tab. There should be an item called SLOTS. Expand that to show all your slots. Select a tape and right click, select LABEL Media and follow the directions.

Hopefully that will solve the issue. My vendor (DELL) supplied me with barcoded labels to use with the tapes/library. I apply them, import the tape and inventory it. so I never have to label a tape, it's automatic.

-SQLBill

 

[bbos360]

DAMN,

restarting the service in windows > administrative tools > services fixed all problems INCLUDING;

Overwritable media (ALL settings were 100% set for overwrite and it still never worked before restart of service)

Constant queing of jobs

!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Altos]

I keep getting this message. I have overwrite set to none, but it still keeps poping up if i answer anything other then cancel. What do i do.


Please insert overwritable media into the drive.

Overwritable media includes scratch, blank, and recyclable media. Please note that depending on the current Media Overwrite Protection setting, imported and allocated media may be overwritable as well. Consult the online help for more information on overwritable media.

 

[ElmoChan]

I find that with BE, whenever I put in a new set of tapes, I have to manually force Be to re-take inventory otherwise it still thinks I have the old media still in there.

 

[SQLBill]

Altos,

1. Check the physical tape and make sure the 'write protect slider' on the tape itself is in the proper position.

2. In BE, media tab, make sure the tape allows for overwrites.

3. As ElmoChan says, when you put in a new tape, at a minimum you must inventory it.

-SQLBill

 

[cybermark1]

I've had this problem before. What a pain. Even though the policy is set to allow writing over the data, it actually won't unless every physical media is under Scratch in the Media Sets. So, under Media then Media view, move all media (CTRL-V) in the other media sets to be in Scratch. Move the unknowns as well and don't forget to use the F2 button. If you've created other media sets yourself, you can now delete them but leave the ones that Backup Exec created. So simply put, everything in All Media should also be in Scratch and there shouldn't be any forms of media in any other sets.

 

[bbos360]

I replaced BE8 with 9 as we were fed up with version 8 and guess what? we still can't backup - backup exec 9 for windows servers installed on a server with windows server 2000 SP2 kills our internet connection?????

Any ideas?

 

[dogmata]

Guys:

Note:

If you set the append period to 1 hour this means that after you have run your first full backup to the tape, you will only be able to append data to tape (regardless of if there is capacity left on that media) for 1 hour after the first full backup.

Infinite- allow witht he overwrite protection period means that the tape will be prtected for 999 years, Infinite-allow for the append period means that it will append data to that tape until the storage limit is reached. It will then check the overwrite protection period, if its still protected against being overwritten, it will either prompt for a new tape (stand-alone tape drives), or grab a new one (scratch or recyclable) if you have an autoloader, depending on how you have set it up.

Cheers
Dog