> Hello,
> 
> here's the info that's at my disposal, it's not an official document.

That's great and very helpful, thanks. My tests seemed to indicate that, 
too. I had 2 unmounted tapes from the same pool, one appendable (well, 0% 
used, so blank) and one recyclable. The job pulled the appendable (blank) 
tape first. But I didn't know if there was an order of precedence (I 
assumed there was), or if NW just randomly choose an available unmounted 
tape from the required pool.


> 
> How networker selects a volume for writing :
> 
> After a backup starts and the Networker server determines what pool 
> the save set should be written to, it?s now necessary to determine 
> what volume within the pool to use.
> 
> 5 categories in order of priority : (each requiring the volume 
> available on an appropriate storage node)
> 
>    - mounted, appendable volume from the required pool
>      Not currently mounted ? Server sends an Alert ?Volume not 
> immediately available? and
>      continues search.
>    - unmounted, appendable volume from the required pool
>    - unmounted, recyclable volume from the required pool
>    - unmounted recyclable volume from a different pool  (disabled 
bydefault) 
> 
>    Now it depends if ?Auto media management ? is enabled or not.
>       - not enabled : volume request Is not cleared from Alerts and 
> administrator
>                    must manually provide a volume
>       - enabled : networker looks for 1 more category
> 
>    - unmounted, unlabeled volume (any volume without a Networker or EDM 
(EMC 
>      Datamanager) label.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Jacques Lapeire
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> ] On Behalf Of Michael Leone
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 3:07 PM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: [Networker] Precedence of use - expired or blank tape, in 
> the same pool?
> 
> I have a question from my legal staff. Let's suppose I create a tape 
with 
> a 2 months browse/retention policy. And I leave it in my library for 
more 
> than 2 months - i.e., it is now older than it's expiration period, and 
is 
> therefore recyclable (all savesets on the tape have expired). And I also 

> have new blank tapes that are labeled in the same pool.
> 
> Which will NW use first, if it needs a tape - will it re-label the 
> recyclable tape, or will it use one of the blank unused tapes in the 
same 
> pool? And what settings would control that?
> 
> (the reason for the question - we are legally prevented, at the moment, 
> from overwriting any tape. So they want to know what will happen if we 
> happen to put in an old tape that has expired, but have forgotten to 
slide 
> the switch to make the tape read-only. Will that tape be overwritten 
> first, or will NW use unused, labeled tapes in the same pool first)
> 
> -- 
> Michael Leone
> Network Administrator, ISM
> Philadelphia Housing Authority
> 2500 Jackson St
> Philadelphia, PA 19145
> Tel:  215-684-4180
> Cell: 215-252-0143
> <mailto:michael.leone AT pha.phila DOT gov>