Networker Retention Policies Question

[ee01akk]

Networker Management Server 7.3 Sp3

2 libraries- 1 virtual EDL and 1 scalar i2k.

The problem seems to be that certain volumes in the i2k have been filled and marked as recyclable and also expired in the "Volumes" section of the NMC, but are not actually changing their status to appendable so that backups can continue, so in effect all backups are "hung" in a cloning state, therefore no more ejects can happen.

Retention Policies:

Daily retention: 35 days (cloned)
Weekly retention: 35 days (cloned)
Monthly retention: Not Run
Annual retention: Not Run

SQL Full backups every day
File system Full backups Monday evening / Tuesday Morning other days level 9 differential

Cloned Data rotated offsite after creation Mon-Fri returned after 35 days

No data is to be retained after 35 days
Existing data older than 35 days should be re-cycled Full backups (file systems) on Friday Month-end and Annual backups are be disabled Weekly schedules do NOT exclude first of Month (replaces Monthly and Annual Backups) Script runs to identify and then move to IO slots any media with clones created from previous evening for rotation offsite Second script runs to identify media ready for return to library Third script runs to deposit media currently in IO ports back into library and re-inventory ready for re-use.

We have to manually change the status of expired and recycled Networker volumes to appendable to get rid of the

"Waiting for x writeable volumes to backup pool ... on networker management server 07"

errors whilst all backup groups are "hung" in a cloning state.

I know that the library sometimes needs rebooting because the robotic arm sometimes dies, but how do I check the retention policies for different backup groups within the Networker Management Console?

I have attached the daemon.log file to this message.

Thanks.

 

[605]

If jukebox volumes will not recycle, you most likely did not use check the jukebox option "Auto Media Management". In this case, NW will never relabel a tape automatically.

You may of course change the status to appendable, but if the media is full, that's it. You must relabel the tape.

NW does not know a scratch pool - it will only relabel media if it needs it and if it can (if "Auto Media Management" is enabled).

 

[ee01akk]

Actually Auto Media Management is enabled. Even if it is disabled, the problem still occurs.

So you're saying that if the media is full, the only way to turn it to scratch manually is to relabel? What about media that is not full and cannot be written to anymore?

 

[605]

Tapes are sequential pieces of media - you must relabel them to reuse them.

AMM is useless if you set the media to "Manual recycle". In this case you must label a recyclable media manually to make it appendable again. Please check for that as well.

If a media has been set to full prematurely, then most likely you have a problem. As NW can not easily determine whether this is due to hardware or media, it will set it to full and continue with another one of the same pool.

 

[ee01akk]

I have tried to manually label volumes set to manual recycle- the tape is loaded Networker labels it, then unmounts it again. But when I set the re-labelled tape to appendable, it's still showing the 100% full data on there that I want to get rid off instead of 0%.

Also AMM is enabled by default, and recycling is set to automatic by default and it still waits for volumes so it's quite clear that it's not recycling as it should do.

 

[605]

If you just label a tape, it will in fact be unloaded when finished.

After you labeled the media, can you run
mminfo -q "volume=<your_media_name>" -v
and verify whether it will still show save sets.

 

[a060463xyz]

If you have amm active and media with state "recyclable" there are only two possiblöe explanations.
First :
Your recyclable media are labeled for a different pool.
You have to enable "recycle from other pools" and "recycle to other pools" for your pools.
Take into acoount that you cannot change the settings for the Default Pool(s) of Networker.
So its a good idea to avoid the "Default" pool.

If thats not true its most likely a bug. I dont know Version 7.3.3, to my opinion 7.3 was a very bad release and it never got rid of its bugs so i jumped to 7.4 as soon as possible.
But I saw the behaviour you explained with several installations of 7.4.1.
So i would advice you to change to 7.4.3 as soon as possible.