W3831 Unable to find any media that can be used in this job

[Obroni]

Hi,

I use 3 tapes (Compaq AIT 50) to backup data using 3 jobs. All the jobs have set "Overwrite Same Media Name, or Blank Media First, then Any Media" in "Options for Additional Backup Media". Despite this when the second tape is finished and the third tape inserted, W3831 "Unable to find any media that can be used in this job" is logged and the tape is rejected. I tried to use a different tape as the third tape, but the results is the same. Can anyone help? Thanks.

David

 

[Cyklops]

which ARCserve version are you using ?? ARCserve 2000 had some problems like these, but they were fixed with Sp4 and the post sp4 patch QO27941 ( see :

http://support.ca.com/Download/patches/asitnt/QO27941.html

)

You also mention that you are using 3 tapes for 3 jobs. When you only use 1 tape per job you don't have to bother with the 'options for additional media' tab. In this case only the 'options for first media' settings count.

regards

 

[Obroni]

Sorry... I have ARCserve 9.01 Patch 3. It's a full backup and I want to use full capacity of all of the tapes. 3 jobs/3 tapes is a coincidence of numbers and moreover one of the jobs takes more then 1 media.

David

 

[Cyklops]

are you using any kind of rotation scheme ??

 

[Obroni]

No. I don't use any rotation scheme.

 

[Cyklops]

How many tapes can be seen from the device manager.
Did you check the compatibility ( including firmware revisions ) with ARCserve's Certified Device Lists.
What happens when you use 'blank media' ( quick erased plus ) tape for the job.

regards

 

[Obroni]

I can see only one tape as Compaq AIT 50 is not a library. Therefore I change the tapes manually. The device is on the compatibility list. I haven't used blank media for the job yet, can try it.

Thanks, David

 

[Ourcup]

Try erasing the tape and then formatting it.
You should be able to do this while the job is still running. (Sometime the tape is 'expired' and reformatting it gives you the chance to set an new expiry date)
In my experience the post SP4 hotfix for this issue made no difference.
We get lots of tapes that require this workaround because we are constantly initialising the database to fix corruption and stop the jobs crashing. Sometimes in the actual job configuration, destination device has the wrong tape specified instead of perhaps a wildcard *.
Alledgedly reinitialising the tapes is supposed to work also.

Good luck,
Ourcup

 

[techwtr]

When you say that you have set "Overwrite Same Media Name, or Blank Media First, then Any Media", are you doing that in both spots on that options screen? I'm not looking at my arcserve screens right now, but memory serves on this screen there are two spots on that screen that I answer exactly the same way ( first media and additional media). This has always given me success with backups. No mention if blank tape worked. I use to see that error when some other guy setup Arcserve on my server years ago. I found it was the rotation cycle that is causing the problem. Arcserve was looking for a particular tape(s) for that job. If it didn't get it the job didn't go on unless you used a blank tape.

At one of my Arcserve upgrades, I completely deleted ARcserve from the server and installed from scratch. I created new backup job which does a full backup each night on a four week rotation of tapes ( 4 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly). Since then I haven't had a problem.