All,

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about
the volume readonly flag in NetWorker - this seems to be a recurring
topic.

Hopefully this will help and not just add to the noise...

These are observations from the Solaris version of NetWorker 6 and 7:

Each media volume (tape) has a readonly flag (stored in the media
database).

The mminfo "-q readonly" option can be used to select records that have
the readonly flag set, and the "-r volflags" option can be used to view
the readonly flag (indicated with a "r" when set, and nothing when
not).

In the GUI's the readonly flag is indicated with a "(R)" next to the
volume name in the Volumes window.  The "(R)" next to the volume name
in the Devices pane indicates that the device is readonly and is
unrelated to the volume readonly flag.

The volume readonly flag can be set with the "nsrmm -o readonly"
command, by labeling the volume readonly with "nsrjb -L -o readonly" or
"nsrmm -l -o readonly", or by clicking through to Volume -> Change Mode
-> Read Only in the Volume window in the GUI's.

It is not set automatically when there is a media verification failure
(the volume is just marked full and active save sets are terminated
(ie, aborted) and flagged as incomplete).

It is not set automatically when mounting a volume for recovery (the
device is made readonly, but not the volume).

My guess is that NetWorker will never automatically change (set or
reset) the volume readonly flag (an exception here, depending on your
POV, is that it will be "reset" when a volume is deleted - a volume is
deleted automatically as part of a label operation - often label
operations are automatic).

The state of the volume readonly flag has no bearing on whether a
volume is selected for recycling or not.

My guess is that the only times NetWorker takes any notice of the
volume readonly flag is when it is searching for a non-full volume for
writing to (it must not be readonly), and when a volume is mounted (the
device will be made readonly if the volume is readonly).

Given the above: in a normally operating NetWorker setup that is left
to operate by itself (ie, automatically) there will be no volumes with
the readonly flag set - any that do will have been set by a human.

George.
--
George Scott           George.Scott AT its.monash DOT edu
Systems Programmer, IT Services, Monash University

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