unable to find blank media

[datadan]

I am having trouble understanding why I must manually reformat (quick erase) the tape every day. Failure to do this causes our backup to hang "unable to find blank media...blah blah blah"

The properties state that it is set to append and not overwrite.

What is the proper setting here? I want to just be able to swap tapes and check the log for errors.

(arcserve 2000 for NT (novell/nt client agents) ~25GB data)

Your help is appreciated.

 

[fitfixer]

I had this problem with Arcserve 2000 on NT4, what you need to do is create a new media pool (in Media pool manager) and give it a name,
then do full format of your tape media ,you will have to do this once with each tape in the set.
In the format properties box,
give each tape a name (Monday, Tuesday etc,)
specify the retention time (6 days in a weekly set)
and make each tape a member of this new media pool
you can set the serial number also if you wish

the media pool manager will then display all the tapes in this set, it will keep each tape in the "save set" group until the retention time is passed before moving it to the "scratch set"
Scratch set tapes will be overwritten,

You can also move tapes from the save set to the scratch set by right clicking on the tape in the MPM
hope this helps

 

[Electro]

Hey Datadan,

We have also had similar problems to this and our fix was somewhat easier to fix that previously mentioned by Fitfixer.

When you change tapes you can do one of 2 methods:

1) Change tapes, then perform an inventory through Arcserve so that it has the updated inventory and your jobs should recognize this.

2) Perform a dismount through Arcserve, change the tapes and let the tape unit fully initialize itself, then perform a mount through Arcserve (this will force an inventory of all tapes).


Let me know if this solves your problem.

Thanks,

Darryl Brambilla
EDS Canada
Darryl.Brambilla@eds.com

 

[Electro]

Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd drop you an update. I came across an very well hidden tech bulletin from Arcserve under one of their FAQ's regarding the "Unable to find Blank Media" message. The solution is as follows:

1) Go into your backup job that is failing.
2) Select the destination tab
3) Choose the device group - NOT THE SPECIFIC TAPE
4) Resave / submit your backup job

The primary reason for this is Arcserve sometimes is remembering a specific tape label, rather thana generic label. By selecting the device group it auto searches for any tape in that slot.

We have had this error for months now and only on a couple of jobs. As soon as I performed the above the backups have run every time since then without fail.

Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you!

Thanks!
Darryl Brambilla
EDS Canada
Darryl.Brambilla@eds.com