Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable

2013-03-11 18:15:47
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
From: Simon Tyler <simon AT tpmcomm DOT com>
To: Dan Langille <dan AT langille DOT org>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:48:19 -0400
Although this issue is old, I thought I should update the list on resolution:

As noted below and in several previous posts, I had a lot of problems with tapes not being recognized. It appears that the tapes were labelled by someone generating a barcode online, and printing out the bar code labels on regular printer paper. 

I ordered HP Pre printed tape labels, and it looks to me as if these issues have gone away. I also took a tape that the reader previously refused to recognize at all, used the proper label, and the reader now recognizes the tape. I'm pretty sure this was the source of much (if not all) of the grief I've had. I'm really glad I just marked the tapes as bad and set them aside instead of throwing them away,

I can understand why someone would do this, the cost of preprinted labels is obscene (at least from our supplier)

This problem was really very annoying and intermittent, and I hope no one else encounters it, but just in case you do: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER

Thanks,

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 6:21 PM, Dan Langille <dan AT langille DOT org> wrote:

On Nov 26, 2012, at 5:59 PM, Simon Tyler wrote:

Today I had some tapes brought in from offsite storage and I loaded them into the autoloader. One of the tapes was recognized, and the other (slot 7)  showed in the Autoloader website and in the bacula (backup software) as Empty or not recognized.

I mounted the unrecognized tape, stopped bacula,  and did this:

mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nst0 weof
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind

This rewinds the tape and marks end of file at the beginning, "deleting" the tape.

Then I started bacula and checked the status again.

This time, the tape in slot 8 was unrecognized, and the tape in slot 7 was recognized. This exact scenario has happened enough times that I'm confident I made no error; it's happening too often to be failed tapes. In the past, simply loading or mounting a tape from one slot, is enough to have a tape in another slot show as unrecognized.

So now that I've deleted the tape,

Point of clarification: you've [effectively] erased the tape.  I say effectively, because the data is still on there, but way outside the scope of this discussion.

I'm being petty here only because the jargon used in this situation is important.

is there a way to reset the entry for that tape in Bacula, as the Catalog thinks it's holding data?

delete volume

This removes the entry from the Catalog.

Then you'll want to issue a label command.

-- 
Dan Langille - http://langille.org


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