Veritas SSO problem

[krneki123]

We have 2 W2k3 servers w/ Veritas BackupExec 9.1 and SSO, both are attached to one tape library over FC.
Lately we noticed that some jobs from one of the servers use and even overwrite/ tapes, allocated and protected by another media set. Furthermore, today I moved one tape from one media set to another and then checked the new situation using the Veritas interface on the other server - even after a number of refreshes (during the next hour) there was no change. How can I troubleshoot this kind of behaviour?
I run "Database consistency check" on the SSO primary and it reported errors - but where is the log file?
Thanks.

 

[vm146971]

I have used the BackupExec SSO in the past, but it has been awhile. From what I remember BE will allow any server to write to available media. If Server_A has a backup job that writes to Tape01 in Media Set1 but does not fill the tape and then Server_B has a job pointing to the Media Set 1 it will append to Tape01, or grab a tape from Scratch if it cannot find appendable media in Media Set 1 It should not overwrite Tape1 if it has unexpired images on it.

All of this should be contolled by the ADAMM (Advanced Device and Media Management) database server. The ADAMM server would be the first BE server installed. All other BE servers would be configured to access the ADAMM server to get information about Media sets. It should ask you during the install, If SSO is installed if this is the first server in the SSO environment, or if you want to point to a ADAMM server. I believe all the servers use the same PVL.MDB (Physical Volume Library)which holds the information about tapes, media sets, and devices. Perhaps one of your servers is acting like a stand alone BE server and has its own PVL.MDB file. That would explain the behavior you described.

 

[krneki123]

Thanks for replying to my question.
I have 6+ jobs running on each of the two SSO members, but both servers use same media sets, i.e. DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY1, MONTHLY2.
My problem is that sometimes the Master SSO server in a daily job takes a tape01 from the WEEKLY media set, overwrites it and places it in the DAILY media set. The tape01 at the time of this event has already expired overwrite protection, but it is not in the targeted media set. I thought media sets guarantee some more protection... Am I wrong?

 

[vm146971]

I am concerned about what said in your first post:

Your words:
"I moved one tape from one media set to another and then checked the new situation using the Veritas interface on the other server - even after a number of refreshes (during the next hour) there was no change."

Do you mean you initiated moving Tape01 to a new media set on ServerA and that the move did not show up on ServerB? Is this still happening?

***This is very important.****

My concern is that if the ADAMM/SSO option is not configured corrrectly,that it would be very bad:

YOU COULD BE LOSING DATA

Have you tested restores?

On a lighter note:

This TID explains how BE will use media:

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/192396.htm

I copied the part of it:

1. Backup Exec first searches the "Reusable Media" set for media that can be overwritten. If more than one "Reusable Media" is available for the backup operation, Backup Exec will select the "Reusable Media" from the lowest autoloader slot.

2. If "Reusable Media" is not available for overwrite operations, Backup Exec next searches for "Recyclable Media" that can be overwritten in all User Media Sets. If more than one "Recyclable Media" is available for the backup operation, Backup Exec will select the media based on the number of hours the media has been recyclable (media that have been recyclable will be chosen before media that has just turned recyclable). If two "Recyclable Media" have been recyclable for the same number of hours, Backup Exec will then select the "Recyclable Media" based on the lowest autoloader slot.

3. If "Recyclable Media" is not available for overwrite operations and Backup Exec Media Overwrite Protection has been configured as "Full", Backup Exec will prompt for a "Reusable Media".

4. If "Recyclable Media" is not available for overwrite operations and Backup Exec Media Overwrite Protection has been configured as "Partial" or "None", Backup Exec will search for media that can be overwritten in the Imported Media set. If more than one "Imported Media" is available for the backup operation, Backup Exec will select the imported media from the lowest autoloader slot.

5. If Imported Media is not available for overwrite and Backup Exec Media Overwrite Protection has been configured as "Partial", Backup Exec will prompt for a "Reusable Media".

6. If Imported Media is not available for overwrite and Backup Exec Media Overwrite Protection has been configured as "None", Backup Exec will search for "Allocated Media" (media in User Media Sets that is not recyclable). If more than one "Allocated Media" is available for the backup operation, Backup Exec will select the "Allocated Media" from the lowest autoloader slot.

7. If Backup Exec still cannot find media, Backup Exec will prompt the user for "Reusable Media."