Hp Ultrium LTO ejects tape automatically

Try restarting the backup exec services on the media server and that should resolve the issue.

I restarted the following services:

Backup Exec Job Engine
Backup Exec Server
Backup Exec Device & Media Service

The job status is back to schedule. Let me have someone put a tape and I will keep you posted.

Thx

Have you tried running a vendor diagnostic on the tape drive itself, just to verify this is not the issue. I know with HP drives and tools, one step involves loading a tape.?

ok so restarting the service did not fix the main issue.

Although a tape was inserted and not automatically ejected, the job status is still at "loading media". Only this time it does not have an exclamation mark. Also, 2 hours have elapsed and the byte count is still at 0.

I have noth tried running a vendor diagnostic on the tape drive itself. Do I need to be consoled into the device in order to do this? Again, this autoloader is remote and I don't have much information handy but I do a person that has physical access to it.

Many thanks,

t

Is the backup job on a remote agent?  If so the job might not process until the remote agent machine is rebooted.  I found this to happen quite often when I used Backup Exec for Exchange and SQL databases.

yes the backup job is on remote agents. I would have to restart all the systems? Or just the remote agent service?

Thanks again,

t

You can try just the remote agent service but in many of my experiences it involved a machine reboot.  Typically after rebooting the offending machine the rest of the backup exec jobs finished without issues.  Currently we backup our nodes to a share and then send that info to tape.  works much better that way.

Good Luck

check the 'alerts' as this is probably asking you something and waiting for a reponse.

My guess is that your tapes are set to prevent overwrite for a period of time and the backup is asking for a tape it is allowed to overwrite.
It will eject the current tape and wait for you to insert another that it can use.

You can amend the overwrite protection for each media set, or disable it completely in preferences.

Thanks for the support.

In the "alerts" I see the following

Please insert media 'lto000005' into the drive.

respond yes to acknowledge
respond no to retry the operation
respond cancel to cancel the operation

category: media insert
type: attention required
server: server
device: ultrium


properties of category: media insert
enabled: yes
send notifications: no
record in event: yes
event id: 58061
automatically clear: no
include job log: no

------------------------------------------------------

does that information useful?

Thanks again.

t

I also viewed the properties of the job and under 'Destination- Device and Media' under 'when this job begins', Overwrite media is selected.

I just received another alert. This time the device name is Dat72 and it states to 'please remove the media from the drive.'

Is it possible that I don't have any room left? How may I see this?

Many thanks

the alefrt seems to be asking for a specific tape.
"Please insert media 'lto000005' into the drive."

When setting up the job, have you assigned it to a server, media set or drive?
The alert you have above suggests you may have assigned the job to a specific tape.

Also, in your media set, even if you have "overwrite" set on the job, the media could still be protected. You need to see if there is an overwrite period set on your media. Many times, the default is "indefinate". This means if you don't change it, then the tapes will never be overwritten.

Also, in the above message, it is asking for a DAT tape, but your question indicates LTO drives. Do you have an DAT attached for some backups? If not, then the backup is set for an old device that it is looking for.

It looks like i have it assigned to all the devices. I see i have a dat72 and LTO under stand-alone drives in the 'Devices" tab.

I have the following job settings:

Device: all devices <---there is an ultirum and a dat72
Media set: name media set

How can I see if there is an overwrite period set on the media?

I haven't changed much. I wonder why all of a sudden we are having this issue?

Many thanks,

t

"Also, in your media set, even if you have "overwrite" set on the job, the media could still be protected. You need to see if there is an overwrite period set on your media. Many times, the default is "indefinate". This means if you don't change it, then the tapes will never be overwritten."

Where can I see this?

Thx

i also see an alert that states media lto000006 is overwrite protected. I then navigated to the Media tab and opened the properties of lto000006 and lto000005 Both tapes showed the following:

Overwrite protection until: Overwritable
Appendable until: Not appendable (media full)

Also the Media set Appendable Period is set to 'Infinite - Allow Append'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
media label: lto000005

Used capacity: 281 gb
available capacity: 5.93gb
total capacity: 196

media label: lto000006

use capacity: 277gb
available capacity: 6.17gb
total capacity: 196

Is the total capacity the actual complete size of the backup?

Thanks for the support.

It allows you to add to it, but not overwrite the existing media, based on what I am seeing. "Indefinate" means you cannot overwrite the media, ever. It could be that depending on how large your backups are, that if they are small, this is why you haven't hit this problem before.

Thanks for the insight. The media set periods are set to 'none'. This is on both overwrite protection period and Append period; infinite - allow append is selected.


What should I do at this point?

thx

The best thing to do is determine how long you would like to keep a tape before it is overwritten. This is considered a "retention" period. I work for a mid-size company. Our daily backups are kept for 60 days, so I cannnot allow a backup to be over written for that time frame. This is just an example.

Ok Thanks again.

But, where do i see the retention period on a specific tape?

i only see this in the property of tapes 5 and 6

Overwrite protection until: Overwritable
Appendable until: Not appendable (media full)

Again, I am new to this system and there has been no change in Veritas configuration according to those around here.

Thanks again.

Since i have no overwrite protection period configured, why do I receive the alert saying that the media is overwrite protected?

Does this mean I need to insert my own blank tape? Is there a way to determine how long I append the my daily backups for? i thought this was set at the Media Set properties

next to appendable until: not appendable (media full)

Do you think the tape can be physically protected?

Ok let me ask to see if the media is physically locked.

But what does 'Not Appendable (Media Full) mean? Does that mean the tape is full and I need to do something about it?

Many thanks

also in the properties of the media set it states WARNING:

Any media can be overwritten if the overwrite protection level is set to nonoe. the overwrite protection level is currently set to none. The overwrite protection level is currently set to None.

Would only changing the OVERWRITE setting to APPEND TO MEDIA AND OVERWRITE MEDIA IF NO APPENDABLE MEDIA IS FOUND fix my issue? or is in mandatory to set and overwrite period. We have always had it this way for a long time..

How can I determine the overwrite period. We really don't have any policy in place and I am not quite sure what is the total backup size. I was wondering if its 196GB?

Thanks again.

media label: lto000005

Used capacity: 281 gb
available capacity: 5.93gb
total capacity: 196

media label: lto000006

use capacity: 277gb
available capacity: 6.17gb
total capacity: 196

Well, if it is LTO1, the native space is 100G, and 200G compressed.

Make the change to APPEND TO MEDIA AND OVERWRITE MEDIA IF NO APPENDABLE MEDIA IS FOUND first and see if that solves the problem.

Ok.

As I wait for the job to run at 10pm, I ran a test run and it failed with the final error:0xe0008703 Job failed running its test run. see logfile for details.

where can I find the logs?

I found the test run job logs. I was looking for txt files and apparently they are in xml files.

- <jobLogBeserver version="1.0">
- <jobDetail>
  <NodeCredential />
- <NodeTapeCapacity>
- <NodeTapeDevice>
- <TagTapeCapDevice>
- <![CDATA[ Dat72
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapDevice>
- <TagTapeCapKBonlineAppend>
- <![CDATA[ 0.000
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBonlineAppend>
- <TagTapeCapKBonlineOverwrite>
- <![CDATA[ 0.000
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBonlineOverwrite>
- <TagTapeCapKBTotalAppend>
- <![CDATA[ 1,942,421
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBTotalAppend>
- <TagTapeCapKBTotalOverwrite>
- <![CDATA[ 4,201,907
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBTotalOverwrite>
- <TagTapeCapstatus>
- <![CDATA[ Success
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapstatus>
  </NodeTapeDevice>
- <NodeTapeDevice>
- <TagTapeCapDevice>
- <![CDATA[ Ultrium
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapDevice>
- <TagTapeCapKBonlineAppend>
- <![CDATA[ 679,200
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBonlineAppend>
- <TagTapeCapKBonlineOverwrite>
- <![CDATA[ 3,407,616
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBonlineOverwrite>
- <TagTapeCapKBTotalAppend>
- <![CDATA[ 679,200
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBTotalAppend>
- <TagTapeCapKBTotalOverwrite>
- <![CDATA[ 3,407,616
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapKBTotalOverwrite>
- <TagTapeCapstatus>
- <![CDATA[ Success
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapstatus>
  </NodeTapeDevice>
- <TagTapeCapacityMisc>
- <![CDATA[ Warning: Unable to reasonably detect which device this job will run to. Different possible outcomes depending on which device this job runs to. Please target a specific device to avoid this conflict.
  ]]>
  </TagTapeCapacityMisc>
  </NodeTapeCapacity>
- <NodeMediaCheck>
- <TagMediaCheckOnline>
- <![CDATA[ Insufficient online or nearline media is available to start job.
  ]]>
  </TagMediaCheckOnline>
- <TagMediaCheckOverwrite>
- <![CDATA[ There is no media online or nearline that can be overwritten or the job has been marked append/terminate.
  ]]>
  </TagMediaCheckOverwrite>
- <TagMediaCheckStatus>
- <![CDATA[ Failed
  ]]>
  </TagMediaCheckStatus>
  </NodeMediaCheck>
- <TagBackupJobname>
- <![CDATA[ Backup IEMAIL01,IEDC01,IEDC02,IEFPS-1, IEAMOS full
  ]]>
  </TagBackupJobname>
- <TagTRJobstatus>
- <![CDATA[ Fail
  ]]>
  </TagTRJobstatus>
- <TagMediaProtection>
- <![CDATA[ Append first then overwrite
  ]]>
  </TagMediaProtection>
- <TagTargetDevice>
- <![CDATA[ All Devices (IEMAIL01)
  ]]>
  </TagTargetDevice>
- <TagTargetMediaSet>
- <![CDATA[ IslandEscape Media Set
  ]]>
  </TagTargetMediaSet>
- <TagJobKBytesToProtect>
- <![CDATA[ 0.000
  ]]>
  </TagJobKBytesToProtect>
  </jobDetail>
- <jobSummary>
- <jobServer>
- <![CDATA[ IEMAIL01
  ]]>
  </jobServer>
- <jobName>
- <![CDATA[ TestRun 00060
  ]]>
  </jobName>
- <jobLogFileName>
- <![CDATA[ C:\Program Files\VERITAS\Backup Exec\NT\Data\BEX_IEMAIL01_04321.xml
  ]]>
  </jobLogFileName>
- <jobDeviceName>
- <![CDATA[ All Devices (IEMAIL01)
  ]]>
  </jobDeviceName>
  </jobSummary>
- <status>
- <completeStatus>
- <![CDATA[ 6
  ]]>
  </completeStatus>
- <timeStart>
- <![CDATA[ Monday, September 12, 2011 6:47:57 PM
  ]]>
  </timeStart>
- <timeEnd>
- <![CDATA[ Monday, September 12, 2011 6:47:57 PM
  ]]>
  </timeEnd>
- <errorDescription>
- <![CDATA[ Final error: 0xe0008703 - Job failed running its test run. See logfile for details.

  ]]>
  </errorDescription>
- <errorCategory>
- <![CDATA[ Final error category: Job Errors
  ]]>
  </errorCategory>
- <umiOriginator>
- <![CDATA[ 0
  ]]>
  </umiOriginator>
- <justErrorCode>
- <![CDATA[ -536836349
  ]]>
  </justErrorCode>
  </status>
  </jobLogBeserver>

nevermind the logs. I have the backup exec job engine service stopped. After starting the service the job began. I did not try another test run, but hopefully the append to settings will work.

Thanks again

Ok now I am a bit confused. I received a Meida Remove message and the device name is Dat72. So I just paused it. Another thing I noticed is how in the job setup windows under 'Overwrite' it says 'No'

This changed after setting the job to append to media. Should this display 'Yes' under "Overwrite' ?

Thx

After executing a test run I viewed the xml job logs and saw that:

-Insufficient online or nearline media is available to start job

-There is no media online or nearline that ca be overwritten or the job has been marked append/terminate

if the media tape LTO000006 and LTO000005 say this:

i only see this in the property of tapes 5 and 6

Overwrite protection until: Overwritable
Appendable until: Not appendable (media full)

What is it that I am suppose to do?

I moved the tapes to scratch and then executed a test run and it failed with the same errors.

Please help soonest and. Many thanks,

Do you, by chance, have a new tape? Just thought it might be worth a try. Unless you are sure you need the data, you could also try erasing one of those tapes.

Ok so I tried moving the tapes to scratch and after the failed test run I moved changed the job configuration back to Overwrite instead of Append to media, and overwrite.

The test run finally passed succeded. So I began the backup job.

So far it's my 10% and going. What happens to the tapes now that they reside in scratch media?

Thanks for the support and getting me to this point.

Once they are written on, they will be moved back. They will no longer be considered scratch at that point.

Last night yield the same results. The backup job gets to 99% and then goes to 'Loading Media'. This time it's pointing to LTO000007.

In the Media section it says the same'Overwrite protection until: Overwritable Appendable until: Not appendable (media full)' when I hover over the tape. I also have the other two in scratch.

What can be happening? Can this me a configuration issue or should I put in a brand new tape?

I am still confused as to why the media is not overwriten when the Media Set Properties show as below:



 

Under the "Alerts" tab, do you have any alerts requesting confirmation before overwrite. Unless you make a change, it will require intervention before it overwrites a tape. There is a way to make it "auto respond". Just scroll down in the link below until you find your version.
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH5363 

In the 'Alerts' tab prior to the more recent "Please insert overwritable media into the drive" alert, I see a 'Media Information' catergory alert that states:

Media 'LTO000007' is overwrite protected.

The media in drive 'Ultrium' is currently allocated and is not available for overwrite operations.

Can you upload a screen shot of the properties of "LTO000007"?

Also, what version of BE are you running?

We are running Veritas Backup Exec Version 10.0 Rev. 5484. I know it's legacy software but we have to use it untill further notice.

Below is a screenshot of the lt000007 properties which are the same as the tape I just moved to scratch. However, this happened recently, yesterday i recall checking the tape and showing that it was overwritable

 

Try making the following change to your job properties

be-shot.jpg

I don't see the option in the backup job properties. Below is an image.

Please help soonest. Thanks.


backup-job.bmp

What if you highlight the "Advanced" section under settings? Some versions place things in other locations.

The other question, have you rebooted this server yet? It was mentioned a few times previously as a suggestion, but I don't see a response were you have rebooted the media server.

No I have not restarted the media server. I will do that now.

Below is a screenshot of the 'advanced' section.

Thanks again.

I restarted the media server. Is there anything I should do before starting the job again?

I also just noticed the 'Backup Exec Agent Browser' service set to manual and it was stopped. Should this be set to automatic and started?

No.Just start the job.

Well, back to stuck on 'Loading Media'. Also, same type of alert was generated.

"Please insert overwritable media into the drive.

Overwritable media includes scratch, blank, and recyclable media. Please note that depending on the current Media Overwrite Protection setting, imported and allocated media may be overwritable as well. Consult the online help for more information on overwritable media.

Respond Yes to acknowledge.
Respond No to retry the operation.
Respond Cancel to cancel the operation."

If you answer "Yes", will the job continue? Just curious as a test. If so, this helps provide a solution.

well as of now the job is by 56%. I don't recall selecting neither on this particular occasion. However, on other attempts I have tried 'no' which retrys the job and end up on loading media.

What should happen if I select yes? I haven't had a backup in almost a month now and more than ever I have a weight on my back..

Please help soonest. Thanks a million.
t

If i answer yes then I get a 'no media found alert' and if i 'ok' that alert, the following alert says "please insert media...."

and this only happens once it gets to 99%

If you drag say Tap #6 and #7 to scratch, will the job then complete? This way, they are in scratch. Another thing I have heard of that you can try, is to recreate the job as a different job and try to run it. This would indicate there is some problem with the config or come thing corrupt in the job database. Below is also a link on configuring a job to "auto respond" to overwrite request as well as other messages.

 http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH5363

Thanks again. I've dragged tapes 5 and 6...but not  tape 7. Are there any hardware diagnostic tools I  can use to see if the device itself is having issues?

t

We are starting to think there might be a hardware issue. A FULL backup usually would take 15 hours. The last time I ran it, it got to 99% after 24 hours when it got stuck on 99%

Ok so I just ran some test. it keeps on saying the media is not overwritable.

What is weird is that I also have DAT tape drive and I get the same loading media message when I execute a job on that device using the same job?

There must be something I am overlooking. But it's been almost two weeks and still no back up.

Please help soonest

Many thanks,
t

Have you verified that the slide tab to lock the tape from being writtable has not been set? Where is the DAT located (in a library or stand alone).

Would the fact that I only have 23% of space matter

In case I wasn't clear. I meant to say 23% of disk space left on c:

The DAT device is a stand-alone drive. the job does not even start. It stays on loading media and when you respond with 'ok' it comes right back.

I had someone confirm that the devices were not physically locked.

On the job properties, can you send me a screen shot of the screen that shows the devices. Also, I would try to drag 3-4 of the tapes to scratch media and run a job.

For now we took your advise and ruled the tape drive faulty. We have tried brand new tapes and it still fails at 99%. It just hangs at 'loading media' and even setting an append to period did not fix anything.

Sorry for the delay. I am traveling and in training this week. So, are you saying you believe the drive to be bad?

Thats ok you helped enough. We claimed the drive dead after all that we tried. The drive was 3 years old but it wasn't even close to the "Mean Time Between Fail"(MTBF) period.

Thanks for the help. The support helped me familiarize my self with these types of devices.

Again, we ruled the device "damaged" and we are purchasing a new one.

Thanks again

Told you it was faulty a month ago!