the retention level for a tape is associated with whatever length you
configure (e.g. ret level 4 could be 6 months).

the exp date for a tape in media manager and exp date for a tape in NetBackup
are different.

exp date for a tape in media manager tells how long the tape has been in the
environment (e.g. tape was introduced into the system 5 years ago, I'll toss
it now)

exp date for a tape in NetBackup is always changing...
- media server needs a tape for ret level x backups... do I have one? (unless
mult ret allowed, then it justs asks do I have a tape?)
- if not, go to media manager and ask for an available tape
- tape gets assigned to that media server
- backup is written
- exp date is set on backup image in catalog and same date set on tape within
NetBackup

this keeps happening, but each time the exp date on the tape is changed to the
new exp date (actually, whichever is longest.  new or current... which will
always be the same as the backup just written unless you've allowed mult
retentions)

the backup images are purged from the catalog as they expire.  the tape stays
assigned and will not reuse the space from the expired backup images.  when
the last backup image on the tape expires and there are no valid images left
on the tape, the tape will also expire and becomes unassigned.


- Scott



                                                                                
                                   
                    "Johnson,                                                   
                                   
                    Tony                 To:     "'scott.kendall AT abbott DOT 
com'" <scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com>           
                    -Research"           cc:     "Veritas-Bu (E-mail)" 
<veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>         
                    <gjohnson@ADM        Subject:     RE: [Veritas-bu] how much 
tape left?                         
                    WORLD.com>                                                  
                                   
                                                                                
                                   
                    09/28/2001                                                  
                                   
                    02:55 PM                                                    
                                   
                                                                                
                                   
                                                                                
                                   




I just noticed that :-(  After looking at the available_media , it appears
that tapes themselves have thier own retention because they are different
from the ones I programmed in the classes.  I'm not going to be able to
restore properly if the tapes are overwriting themselves when I don't want
them to...  I don't see any option to change this is media manager...

-----Original Message-----
From: scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com [mailto:scott.kendall AT abbott DOT com]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 9:59 AM
To: Johnson, Tony -Research
Cc: Veritas-Bu (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] how much tape left?



You don't have to add up the k yourself.  The status and kbytes are both
reported with the bpmedialist command.  Since capacity w/ compression is
always going to vary, looking at the kbytes and then subtracting from 70GB
is
not a good way to tell if the tape is full.  It might be full and be way
below
this or it might be more than this and report a negative result (and still
have space left).  The status will tell you if it's full.

available_media report is in the goodies dir and there is a GUI report in
the
NT console (which can be used against a UNIX master/media server).  Most
people modify the available_media report because it is VERY slow (more media
servers the slower it is) or rewrite it in PERL.

If you only have 8 tapes in a small changer, be aware that the media server
may be using more than one tape at a time, and not filling one then going to
the next, because of different retention levels.


- Scott





                    "Johnson, Tony -Research"

                    <gjohnson AT admworld DOT com>              To:     
"Veritas-Bu
(E-mail)" <veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu>
                    Sent by:                             cc:

                    veritas-bu-admin AT mailman DOT eng.        Subject:
[Veritas-bu] how much tape left?
                    auburn.edu





                    09/28/2001 08:56 AM









I'm using Veritas Netbackup 3.4 with 3.4.1 patches in Solaris 8 and DLT 8000
with 9 tape library ( well 8 plus a cleaning tape ) .  As the backups are
running is there an way to monitor how much tape is left?  I'd like to  be
able to get a sense of when I need to swap out tapes before i run out.  I
don't think going to all the tapes in the library, adding up the k written
to tape and doing subtraction is a optimal thing to do.
_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu




_______________________________________________
Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu