Netbackup not overwriting images

[Tech9801]

I'm running Netbackup 6
I have 10 tapes with a retention of 2 weeks.
Each tape is 800 GB, 400 compressed
Company policy is to use a different tape each day.
Each backup is about 300GB
The company is wanting the backups to fit on one tape for each day, but say when I get back to a Wednesday tape the image from the previous Wednesday is not over wrote and the backup is requesting another tape to continue.
The image on the Wednesday tape should expire by the next Wednesday, right so the backup would fit on the one tape.
I appreciate your help and time.

 

[Tech9801]

I checked my backup status this morning and it failed, if I expire the tape and delete the image the tape will backup fine. My question is that this tape is a 800 GB tape shouldn't (2) 300 GB images fit on this tape?

I appreciate the help

 

[Stumpr]

When NetBackup automatically selects a volume in a robot, it proceeds as follows:

I. Searches the NetBackup media catalog for a mounted volume that meets the following criteria:

* Same retention level as specified in the policy/schedule, unless the ALLOW_MULTIPLE_RETENSIONS_PER_MEDIA option is set
* Same volume pool as specified in the policy/schedule
* Not in a FULL, FROZEN, IMPORTED, or SUSPENDED state
* Media is of the same density specified by the storage unit being used for this backup
* Not currently in use
* Not written in a protected format


II. If the above search finds no volumes, the same criteria are used and NetBackup searches through all non-mounted volumes in the robot.

III. If the media catalog does not have a suitable volume, NetBackup sends an assignment request to the Media Manager. The Media Manager selects an unassigned volume that must meet ALL of the following criteria:

* Is the correct media type.
* Is for the correct robot type.
* Is located in the requested robotic peripheral.
* Resides on the requested host.
* Is in the correct volume pool.
* Is not currently assigned (not already allocated to NetBackup).
* Is not expired (if expiration date is defined for the media)
* Has not exceeded the maximum number of mounts allowed.


IV. If more than one volume qualifies, Media Manager assigns the one with the least mounts. NetBackup then adds this volume to the media catalog and assigns it the specified retention level.

V. If there are no unassigned volumes of the requested type, Media Manager will assign a volume from the scratch pool
VI. If there are no appropriate volumes in the scratch pool (or if there is no scratch pool defined), the backup terminates with a status 96 ("no available media")


Couple of side notes:

- If a backup in progress reaches EOM (End Of Media) before the backup is complete the media selection logic is different:
1) Looks for unassigned media in the required pool or the scratch pool.
2) If there are no unassigned media NetBackup will then look at assigned media that meet the requirements.

- During the initial tape selection process NetBackup should not assign new media if the number of assigned media match the number of drives configured in the storage unit.
Example: If you have 4 drives configured in the storage unit and 4 assigned tapes that match the criteria then NBU should not assign new media



Bob Stump
VERITAS - "Ain't it the truth?"

 

[Tech9801]

This is a copy of the Detailed Status from a successful and a Non successful backup from my server. The log for Tuesdays backup was requesting tape9, when I had tape7 in the drive for Tuesday's backup.
I new at Veritas Netbackup, I did check tape7 before it was scheduled to be backed up to at 12:00 AM, There was only one image on the tape, approx: 300GB and these are 800 GB tapes. The image on tape7 is scheduled to expire 8:00 today, but there should have been enough room on tape7 for another 300GB image, is this right? Another thing is this not on a robot system, I manually put the tapes in each day. Thanks for the time and advise.



This was for Mondays Backup

10/23/2007 12:00:41 AM - connecting
10/23/2007 12:00:41 AM - connected; connect time: 00:00:00
10/23/2007 12:00:44 AM - mounting tape6
10/23/2007 12:00:46 AM - mounted; mount time: 00:00:02
10/23/2007 12:00:46 AM - positioning tape6 to file 1
10/23/2007 12:00:49 AM - positioned tape6; position time: 00:00:03
10/23/2007 12:00:49 AM - begin writing
10/23/2007 3:40:53 AM - end writing; write time: 03:40:04
the requested operation was successfully completed(0)



This was for Tuesdays Backup

10/24/2007 2:38:20 AM - requesting resource server1-hcart3
10/24/2007 2:38:20 AM - requesting resource server1.NBU_CLIENT.MAXJOBS.cxgcph01
10/24/2007 2:38:20 AM - requesting resource server1.NBU_POLICY.MAXJOBS.CPH-netbackup
10/24/2007 2:38:20 AM - awaiting resource server1-hcart3 A pending request has been generated for this resource request. Operator action may be required. Pending Action: No action., Media ID: tape9, Barcode: --------, Density: hcart3, Access Mode: Write, Action Drive Name: N/A, Action Media Server: N/A, Robot Number: N/A, Robot Type: NONE, Volume Group: ---, Action Acs: N/A, Action Lsm: N/A
client backup was not attempted because backup window closed(196)