Why does BE move tapes between media sets??

[jmsabatini]

Now this is really annoying. I place tapes into specific media sets for a reason: When I create a backup job and assign a specific media set, I don't want BE to use any tapes other than the ones in that media set. But I just did a backup and halfway through it, BE moves another tape from its media set into the media set that the job was assigned to. WTF?! Now I have to redo the backup that was overwritten on this other tape. Am I missing something? Thanks!

 

[dogmata]

I would say that you are missing something

BE (backup exec) will not move media between media sets without manual intervention from a user unless:

A) The media for that media set are overwrite (OPP)/ append (APP)protected and there isn't a tape available belonging to that media set which can be overwritten/ appended to. BE will then grab a tape from scratch media or from the recyclable media.

Are you sure you are not confusing media sets with the physical location of the tapes ie. in the slots in your autoloader ?

Media sets are only there for you to tell backup exec that for a particular backup, you want that piece of media to be overwrite protected according to whatever you defined for that media set(s). They are not a physical representation of "where " your media is in an autoloader (assuming you have one)

If you want BE to write a particular backup to a particular tape in a specified slot, you need to create some slot partitions in the Devices tab, and when defining your scheduled job you will need to specify which slot partition you want that backup to be targetted to (in the general tab > "devices&quot


- If BE is "grabbing tapes" belonging to other media sets, chances its because it has to due to OPP/APP issues as mentioned above.

- I would right click on the media sets in question > properties > check the OPP/APP > "infinite" OPP will mean any tapes belonging to that media set will be OPP for 999 years > APP = if you put in one day, this means that BE can append data (assuming theres space) for 1 day only. On the 2nd day, regardless of if there's space available or not, BE will not append data and will then check the OPP to see if its "allowed" to overwrite

Cheers
Dog