We are pursuing the same strategy for DB backups.

The following is what I've done.

I've got a 4 tape rotation which are written to with scheduled (admin)
commands.  The backup db commands will overwrite the db data which was
previously written on the tape.  I specify the tape to be written using
 'backup db devclass=<class> volumenames=<volume>'.

I believe that I've recovered some of the db backup tapes which I want to
recycle by executing a 'checkout libvolume...', followed by a 'checkin
libvolume status=scratch...'.  This has restored the 3590 tapes to a status
of scratch.

No data has been written to these tapes yet, so I don't know for sure that
ADSM will select them as scratch volumes.

Kent


On Dec 20,  4:17pm, Judy Warren wrote:
> Subject: BACKUP DB question
> Folks,
>
> I'd like to setup a daily scheduled full backup of our ADSM server
> database; I'd planned to use 3590 tapes in a 3494 tape robot for the
> backups.  Given the capacity and speed of the 3590 tapes and drives,
> I didn't see any reason to do incremental backups.
>
> But I also don't want to allocate an indefinite number of tapes to
> the DB backups; I figured that a tape rotation of 4-5 tapes would
> be adequate.
>
> The problem that I'm running into is that once a tape has been used
> for a DB backup, I don't seem to be able to find a way to make it
> re-usable for another DB backup some number of days later.  The tape
> volume is marked "Private, DBbackup" according to a "query libvol".
> I've tried changing it to just "Private" or even to "Scratch" (with
> an "update libvol" command), but when I try to backup my database
> to that tape again, I'm told that:
>
>         ANR4583E Database backup terminated - output media full
>         and scratch media could not be mounted.
>
> How do folks out there manage regular automatic or scheduled DB backups?
> Do you just use some other kind of device (eg DEVCLASS=FILE) and manually
> erase some of the files when too many backups have accumulated, or is there
> some trick to getting a DB (tape?) backup rotation in place?
>
>                         Thanks,
>                                 Judy
>
> --
> Judy Warren                             jsw AT tc.cornell DOT edu
> Cornell Theory Center                   (607) 254-8792
>-- End of excerpt from Judy Warren



--
Kent Johnson                        Internet: johnsk6 AT rpi DOT edu
Kent Johnson                        Internet: johnsk6 AT rpi DOT edu
Unix Systems Programmer (VCC 217)      Phone: (518) 276-8175
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute         Fax: (518) 276-2809