Volume cannot be assigned a status of scratch

[keoghd]

I have a query about why a volume cannot be assigned as a scratch volume. The volume in question was included in a backupset which ran at 12:00 midday on 28th May:



"generate backupset zola weekly_backup devclass=3590copy retention=30"



As the retention is 30 days this volume should be available on 27th June, yet the checkin rejects the volume the following day :



28-06-2006 09:31:46 ANR8443E CHECKIN LIBVOLUME: Volume VOL014 in library

3590LIB cannot be assigned a status of SCRATCH.



The volume in question is not being used anywhere else.



Can you help?



NB TSM is at v5.2null

 

[may]

hi,



there a Ibm Technote about this problem:



==> Backupset Volumes Do Not Delete When TSM Backupsets Expire Technote (FAQ)



Problem:

Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) Server is used to create backupsets and the backupsets expire through normal retention processing, the associated tape volumes are not deleted.



Cause

The ARCTVEXT exit is not being called for those volumes. Also, those volumes are not being removed from the volume history file.



Solution

To delete orphaned backupset volumes from the volhist table issue the Delete Volhistory command using the Force=Yes parameter:

DELete VOLHistory TODate={mm/dd/yyyy} TOTime={hh:mm:ss}

Type=BACKUPSET

VOLume={volName}

FORCE={No|Yes} (Note: This is an undocumented parameter)

 

[keoghd]

May,

Thanks for the information.



I checked the volhistory - the volume is not registered there. I assume it deleted the volume as it normally should.



To test this I ran CHECKIN VOLUME today on this volume - it was successful.



The initial failed checkin of the volume was about 12 hours after the 30 day backupset retention was over. I looked up ARCTVEXT - apparently it sets the status of the volume to PENDING SCRATCH while processing. Does this explain the initial problem?



(nb The only documentation I could find for ARCTVEXT was in z/OS. We use TSM on an AIX platform)

 

[may]

I have no idea about ARCTVEXT



i know that you have to specify a "Reuse Time" for a tape in a stgpool to define as it said how many days the Server will wait to use again a tape wich is became empty ==> the pending statut.

You should generaly specify it equal of your DB retention here we kepp five days DB backup so we do not reuse a tape before 5 days after it became Scratch!



but in the backupset state I do not have more info



sorry

 

[keoghd]

May,



Problem is solved!! I checked the reuse time on the storage pool - it is set at 1 day.



I got the ops guys to recycle from older scratch tapes.



Thanks for all your help.



Regards.

 

[may]

it s good news

but

something sound strange..... you are talking about Backupset volume and the "reuse delay" paramater concern Storage pool, there is no link between them!

how did you do ????