>>> On Mon, 12 May 2003 11:53:48 -0700 (PDT), Darren Dunham <ddunham AT taos 
>>> DOT com> said:

 >> The algorithm is as follows:
 >> 
 >> Media Selection Flow
 >> NetBackup searches for and selects a volume from the media catalog as
 >> follows:
 >> * Media Manager selects a volume on the following basis:
 >> - Is located in the requested storage unit (if applicable)
 >> - Is in the correct volume pool (A volume may be pulled from the scratch
 >> pool if necessary.)
 >> - Is not currently in use
 >> - Is not FULL, FROZEN, IMPORTED, SUSPENDED, or DBBACKUP
 >> * If more than one volume is found, Media Manager selects the volume with
 >> the
 >> least number of mounts.

 dd> That can't be the only criteria.  Otherwise a library with a bunch of
 dd> new tapes (0 mounts) would use every tape once before using any of them
 dd> a second time.  That's not what I observe.

One very irritating thing that I've noticed lately, if a tape is stuck
in a down drive, NetBackup will ALWAYS try to use that tape to do
backups. Half of all of our backup failures are due to this lovely
behavior. 

Johnie