In regard to: [Networker] Relabel Volume, stivermr said (at 11:34am on Feb...:

I am new to using EMC NetWorker since our UNIX admin is away on medical
leave. I am having trouble getting tapes relabeled. We recycle tapes
after so long. I inserted and tried to relabel them and I was not able
to.

You've provided just enough information so that we have a rough idea
what the problem is, but not enough so that we could make very helpful
recommendations.  There are a whole bunch of things we still need to know
to really be able to help.  I'll get to those.

First, relabeling a tape is a destructive operation.  When NetWorker
writes its new label to the beginning of a tape, all of the data that
was previously on that tape becomes unreachable.  The data is generally
still there, but because of the way tape drives work, you can't get to it.

That means that you only want to relabel a tape when you are 100% certain
that you don't need any of the data on the tape.

NetWorker uses a couple of policies (that your absent admin has hopefully
established) to determine how long data is kept.  These are called the
browse policy and retention policy.

When both the browse time and retention time for every saveset on a tape
have passed, *and* the browse and retention times for any savesets that
*depend upon* those savesets have also passed, then NetWorker will
automatically mark that tape as eligible for recycling.  It will show up
in the NetWorker Administrator GUI as "expired".

This is how the vast majority of NetWorker environments operate.  Based
on browse and retention policies, NetWorker automatically ages out
savesets and then eventually tapes, and it automatically relabels and
begins to reuse a tape after the tape is "expired".

Where this breaks down is when tapes are held longer than you expect.
There's one main reason why that happens: other savesets depend on one
or more of the savesets on the tape in question.

They still have the old label. I also noticed that it has
overwritten the tapes and it still did not relabel them with the correct
label based upon the media pool. Is there an easy way to relabel them
now that they important data on them?

No.  As I said earlier, relabeling is destructive.  You don't want to do
that to a tape that has data that you still care about.

What would be possible is to copy (via a NetWorker "clone" operation) the
savesets that are on that tape to some other available tape and then
relabel the original.  I don't recommend you do that, though, until you
discover the root cause of the problem you're having.

Maybe I am doing something wrong
and they are supposed to be deleted then relabeled?  Thanks in advance.

No.  You don't need to (and for various reasons, shouldn't) delete a tape
before relabeling.  As I said above, in *most* NetWorker environments, if
the admin needs to forcibly relabel tapes, it's a sign that there's some
other problem.  Tape expiry and re-use is something that NetWorker should
be doing already, with no action on your part.

To be able to provide additional help, having more information about
your environment would be really useful.

For example

- what version of NetWorker are you using
- although it's not relevant for this particular issue, it's generally
  helpful to provide both the server OS and version (e.g. Red Hat Linux
  6.3, Windows Server 2008R2, etc.) for the NetWorker
  server.

- are you using a jukebox?

If you are using a jukebox, then:

- are the tapes that you want to relabel ones that have previously
  been removed from the jukebox, perhaps for off-siting?
- if these are tapes that have been off-sited, does your off-siting
  procedure perhaps involve switching the write-protect tab on the
  tape itself, so that the tape is not physically writable by your
  tape drives?
- if the tapes were previously removed and you are now re-introducing
  them to the jukebox, what's the exact sequence of steps you took?
- are there empty/blank tapes in the jukebox?
- If there are empty/blank tapes in the jukebox, is the Jukebox setting
  "Auto Media Management" enabled?  You can find this setting by

        - launch NetWorker Management Console (NMC) GUI
        - if it's not selected, click the "Enterprise" icon in NMC
        - launch NetWorker Administrator for the backup server in question
        - click the "Devices" icon
        - expand the "Libraries" area of the left-hand pane and select
          your jukebox name and right-click & select "Properties..."
        - click on the "Configuration" tab.  You will find an entry for
          "Auto Media Management".  That controls *only* whether NetWorker
          will automatically label completely blank tapes.  Despite any
          information you may have seen to the contrary, it does not have
          anything to do with NetWorker relabeling tapes that it previously
          has written data to.

Whether or not you're using a jukebox, there are some other questions
about your environment that are relevant for the "why isn't this tape
recyclable".

- do you have multiple different tape pools in use, or are you only using
  one?  If you're only using one, is it the "Default" pool?

For the media pool(s) in question:

- is "Recycle from other pools" set?  You can find this setting by

        - launch NMC and then NetWorker Administrator as before
        - click the "Media" icon
        - select "Media Pools" in the left hand pane
        - select the pool in question in the right hand pane, and right-click
          and select "Properties..."
        - click the Configuration tab and look in the "Volume Properties"
          area.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                             Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT 
edu
Enterprise Computing & Infrastructure                  701-231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                             701-231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164