Veeam Tape Inventory

[veremin]

Probably, something went wrong and PS snap-in was updated properly, as the result you got "Method not found" error.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're up and running now.

[digitlman]

I have a Quantum Superloader 3 library with an HP Ultrium 4 drive. I have been testing the tape feature for a few days now, and it seems like every time I inventory a tape, Veeam just leaves the tape in the drive when done, so that I need to use the Superloader's web interface to move the tapes back to the slot they belong to.

What am I doing wrong?

I also noticed that, with my setup, it is best to leave the cleaning tape out of the library , or else you get some errors on inventory and B&R gets confused.

EDIT: Also, this is how to maintain this environment if you also have Backup Exec installed on the same server, and want to use both at the same time:

For Veeam - go into the device drivers and for the Medium Changer Devices, install the correct driver from Quantum. Stop all Backup Exec services. Open Veeam, and in a few moments it will be able to see the drive and library.

Switch back to Backup Exec for Tape: Go back to the Medium Changer Device and do a Driver Rollback (back to Unknown for BE). Start all BE services and you are back in business.

[Dima P.]

Hello,

...every time I inventory a tape, Veeam just leaves the tape in the drive when done...

I noticed the same behavior lately. Will check this with development team and update this thread as soon as I get any info. Thank you.

[digitlman]

Any word? It's getting annoying having to manually eject the tape after each erase.

[Dima P.]

Hello,
We are currently discussing how this could be changed without disturbing users who are ok with the tape left inside the drive.

For instance, after backup to media stays in drive and next job run will use the same tape – it would simply be faster than telling library to pick the same tape again and put it into library. In case of another job not related to this media, it would be simple moved out to slot and another media would be placed instead. So, I wonder, what are the major reasons to move the tape out of the drive for you’re even if the next operation inside your library would remove it from the drive for sure?

Thank you in advance.

[digitlman]

When I am running a single tape inventory, or single tape erase, I want it to return the tape to the original library slot.

[Dima P.]

Got it! Thank you.

[digitlman]

Ok, I have disabled the Backup Exec services and restarted the server, and now Veeam sees 2 tape drives.

One is listed as Drive 0 (Tape 0), and the other is Drive 0 (\\.\SCSI~SCSI ID). Running an inventory seems to be seeing it using the one with the SCSI ID.

Anything to worry about? How can I delete the other one?

[digitlman]

Bah....looks like I need to abandon hope of using V7 for tapes for now.

[Dima P.]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in response. There could be several reasons why it is happening but the main idea would be not to keep backupexec and Veeam tape functionality in one place, as when you are re installing drivers they are registered in backup software and then could produce issues like yours. Meanwhile I recommend you contacting support team for investigation – they could look over the log information and provide you with the suitable solution. Thank you.

[SFP]

Hello,

I have a similar problem. I installed Veeam in a physical server that previously was installed Backup Exec which did backup job in a HP StoreEver 1/8 G2 Tape Autoloader. In this server, Backup Exec services are disabled and Veeam backup sees the new backup library (quantum superload 3), the HP StoreEver is disconnected.
The problem is that when I try to inventory Drive, I have to move manually the tape from the magazine to the drive through the quantum administration web tool to be inventoried. When Veeam does inventory of this tape, the tape remains in the drive and the process finishes inventorying only one tape. If I want to inventory the other tapes, I have to follow the same process, move the existing tape in the drive to de magazine, move another tape from the magazine to the drive and inventory it.
Why it's not possible to inventory every tape one by one in the same process?

Another issues is when there is no tape in the drive and a backup job is ready to start, it remains waiting for a tape in the drive. If I don't move the tape manually through the quantum web administration tool to the drive, the job never starts.

Any idea?

Thanks in advance.

[Dima P.]

Hello Sergio,
Thank you for your post!

There is no functionality to perform auto - import of tape media from cartridge I/O slots, so this have to be done manually thru the Veeam B&R console (Import Tapes button on the ribbon or right click the tape library). The correct order to work with autoloader should be the following:
1. Import tapes
2. Inventory (or catalogue) tapes

Media stays in drive after operation unless the drive was taken by another tape job or library operation, and in such case old tape should be replaced by another.

If you still have issues described in your post after performing manual importing – please contact our support team, they could tack your issue in the service logs and provide you with the solution.

[veremin]

Nevertheless, if you are ok with the PowerShell, you can automate most, if not all, of the said tasks:

1) Import medium.
2) Inventory medium.
3) Catalog medium.
4) Eject medium.

Thanks.

[SFP]

Thank you,

I'll try what you say and tomorrow I write the feedback.

See you.

[veremin]

If you need assistance with the scripting, just let me know either here or at corresponding subforum. Thanks.

[SFP]

Hello,

I did the following actions to backup files to tape. I would know if it is the correct way as you suggested.

• Import medium: I move manually through the tape library web tool one tape from magazine to the drive.

• Inventory medium: I click right button over the tape drive and I select Inventory Drive option. The cartridge tape appears as online and it is put in free media pool. I assign this tape to a media pool called Monday for example.

Then I move backup this tape from drive to magazine through tape library web tool and I repeat the same process for other 4 tapes.

I move the tape 1 (for exemple) from the magazine to the drive and I inventory medium again. Now I can see in Media, tape 1 online and the other tapes offline. I launch the job which has to write in the tape 1 and everything goes well. Then, once the previous backup job finishes, if I try to launch the job which has to write in the tape 2, I expect that tape 1 moves from drive to magazine and tape 2 moves from magazine to drive and the job starts to write. Actually what happens is that job remains waiting for a correct tape and it does nothing.

This behaviour means that every day I have to move manually each tape through the tape library web tool?

Thanks in advance.

[veremin]

Does "eject media once the job finishes" option (tape job settings) make any difference? With this option enabled, the tape medium should be automatically ejected, once the job is finished. Thanks.

[hgrams]

Hello, I have problems with your suggestion:

Code: Select all

foreach ($Drive in Get-VBRTapeDrive)
{
$Drive.TapeMedium | Start-VBRTapeInventory
} 

I have a single drive. When I insert a tape and execute the command "Get-VBRTapeDrive", I get always the result:

Code: Select all

PS E:\scripts> Get-VBRTapeDrive


IsLocked           : False
Model              : Tandberg Data LTO-6 drive
SerialNumber       : HU140512BB
State              : Empty
LoadedMedia        :
DeviceId           : c8694de6-77c5-4652-a7cb-99ce2791aacc
EnabledByUser      : True
Enabled            : True
Library            : Tandberg Data LTO-6 drive
Address            : 0
Location           : Veeam.Tape.Model.TapeMediumLocation
LoadedTapeMediumId : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
TapeMedium         :
InternalState      : Veeam.Tape.Model.DbTapeDrive

The state is "Empty" and the value "TapeMedium" is empty. When I start a "Tape Inventory" via Veeam console, then the tape will be recognized and then the state is "Loaded" with a valid "TapeMedium" name.

What am I doing wrong?

[veremin]

Are you positive that the medium is actually inserted inside the drive? I'm wondering because from PS perspective, it looks like there is no cassette in the given drive. Thanks.

[hgrams]

Yes I'm sure that the medium is in the drive because the the tape inventory process initiated by the Veeam GUI reports that a tape is inserted and the given name for that. I was wondering that the Veeam has no information that a tape is inserted because I read that Veeam should poll a drive every 30 seconds. Why is the status "Empty" instead "Loaded".

[veremin]

Not sure what can be the reason, as both Powershell snapin and GUI operate with the same internal information. What product version you're using?

[hgrams]

7.0 Patch 4

[veremin]

Then, it might be worth opening a ticket with the support team and asking them to find the root cause of such inconsistency. Thanks.

[hgrams]

Thank you for your support.

[veremin]

Once ticket is opened, please, update the topic with its number, so that, we can follow the case. Thanks.

[hgrams]

The ticket is open Case # 00588503.

[veremin]

Just out of curiosity - what happens if you try to get rid of "drive" part completely, and get the tape medium by barcode first, and only then perform tape inventory. Will this work? Also, how many drive you have? Just one?

Code: Select all

$Medium  = Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "Name or barcorde of given medium"
$Medium | Start-VBRTapeInventory

Thanks.

[hgrams]

Hi Vladimir

Nice idea, but unfortunately, it doesn't work

1.

Code: Select all

PS E:\scripts> $Medium  = Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "Tape 1"
PS E:\scripts> write $Medium


Id                            : 626962cd-2cee-4d4c-b8d6-da2685bfe39a
Barcode                       :
MediaPoolId                   : 27735435-6268-41dd-89ed-e1dfd457ec3c
MediaId                       : bb115f49-a44d-4d15-a040-51680c3497ac
Name                          : Tape 1
DisplayName                   : Tape 1
Description                   :
CapacityString                : 2,4 TB
FreeString                    : 482,6 GB
MediaFamilyId                 : 1403425810
MediaSequenceNumber           : 1
MediaTime                     : 23.06.2014 08:33:23
Continuation                  : False
Location                      : Veeam.Tape.Model.TapeMediumLocation
LocationEx                    : Offline
OriginalSlot                  :
Capacity                      : 2620446998528
Remaining                     : 518229327872
BlockSize                     : 131072
PartitionCount                : 1
IsWriteProtected              : False
IsFree                        : False
IsFull                        : False
IsInSlot                      : False
IsOnline                      : False
IsOffline                     : True
FormatLogicalAddress          : 0
LastWriteTime                 : 23.06.2014 08:31:50
Retired                       : False
Cleaner                       : False
HasMediaId                    : True
HasMediaFamilyId              : True
HasBarcode                    : False
MediaLabel                    : MTF Media Label|1.0|Veeam|Backup & Replication
                                7.0|2014.06.22.08:30:10|Veeam 2014.06.22.08:30:
                                10|1|{bb115f49-a44d-4d15-a040-51680c3497ac}||
IsBelongUnrecognizedMediaPool : False
IsBelongImportedMediaPool     : False
IsBelongFreeMediaPool         : False
IsBelongUserMediaPool         : True
IsLocked                      : False
MediaFamilyItem               : Veeam.Tape.Core.MediaFamilyItem

2.

Code: Select all

PS E:\scripts> $Medium | Start-VBRTapeInventory


SessionInfo          : Veeam.Backup.Model.CBaseSessionInfo
Id                   : 00c4ec8c-7c15-4968-9456-67149da84db2
JobType              : TapeInventory
JobName              : Tape library inventorization
Name                 : Tape library inventorization
JobSpec              : <TapeInventorySpec><LibraryId>00000000-0000-0000-0000-00
                       0000000000</LibraryId><TapeIds><TapeId>626962cd-2cee-4d4
                       c-b8d6-da2685bfe39a</TapeId></TapeIds><Operation>Invento
                       ry</Operation></TapeInventorySpec>
JobTypeString        : Tape inventory
Operation            :
Description          :
BaseProgress         : 0
IsCompleted          : True
IsWorking            : False
JobId                : d7efefeb-0838-47ca-93f6-61540044f014
Result               : Success
State                : Stopped
EndTime              : 24.06.2014 13:41:02
CreationTime         : 24.06.2014 13:41:01
AuxData              :
IsLowerAgentPriority : False
LogName              : Job.Tape_library_inventorization
LogsSubFolder        :
Logger               : Veeam.Backup.Core.XmlLogger
Tracer               : Veeam.Backup.Core.CSessionLogTracer

3.

Code: Select all

PS E:\scripts> Get-VBRTapeDrive


IsLocked           : False
Model              : Tandberg Data LTO-6 drive
SerialNumber       : HU140512BB
State              : Empty
LoadedMedia        :
DeviceId           : c8694de6-77c5-4652-a7cb-99ce2791aacc
EnabledByUser      : True
Enabled            : True
Library            : Tandberg Data LTO-6 drive
Address            : 0
Location           : Veeam.Tape.Model.TapeMediumLocation
LoadedTapeMediumId : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
TapeMedium         :
InternalState      : Veeam.Tape.Model.DbTapeDrive

Shows the same problem, the drive state is still "Empty". To crosscheck this, I started the Tape Inventory via Veeam GUI --> It worked. After that the drive status is "Loaded".

[veremin]

The strange thing is that the given tape is shown as offline. What if you try to list online mediums? Will there be any?

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isonline -eq $true}

Thanks.

[hgrams]

When I execute this command, the result string is empty.
Then I execute the Tape Inventory via Veeam GUI, the output is:

Code: Select all

PS E:\scripts> Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isonline -eq $true}


Id                            : f06a465f-16e5-4e46-90b6-77ad6fba3b34
Barcode                       :
MediaPoolId                   : 27735435-6268-41dd-89ed-e1dfd457ec3c
MediaId                       : 0b0f5799-5f3c-49bc-924d-a0544fc8fd63
Name                          : Tape 7
DisplayName                   : Tape 7
Description                   :
CapacityString                : 2,4 TB
FreeString                    : 469,4 GB
MediaFamilyId                 : 1403084352
MediaSequenceNumber           : 1
MediaTime                     : 18.06.2014 07:39:25
Continuation                  : False
Location                      : Veeam.Tape.Model.TapeMediumLocation
LocationEx                    : Drive 1 (Tape0)
OriginalSlot                  :
Capacity                      : 2620446998528
Remaining                     : 503999102976
BlockSize                     : 131072
PartitionCount                : 1
IsWriteProtected              : False
IsFree                        : False
IsFull                        : False
IsInSlot                      : False
IsOnline                      : True
IsOffline                     : False
FormatLogicalAddress          : 0
LastWriteTime                 : 18.06.2014 14:24:03
Retired                       : False
Cleaner                       : False
HasMediaId                    : True
HasMediaFamilyId              : True
HasBarcode                    : False
MediaLabel                    : MTF Media Label|1.0|Veeam|Backup & Replication
                                7.0|2014.06.18.09:39:12|Veeam 2014.06.18.09:39:
                                12|1|{0b0f5799-5f3c-49bc-924d-a0544fc8fd63}||
IsBelongUnrecognizedMediaPool : False
IsBelongImportedMediaPool     : False
IsBelongFreeMediaPool         : False
IsBelongUserMediaPool         : True
IsLocked                      : False
MediaFamilyItem               : Veeam.Tape.Core.MediaFamilyItem

What I don't understand is, what does the Veeam GUI command different to the command set via Powershell?