Moving Tape Media from Pool Associated Replaced Tape Drive

[mpozar]

Hi,
We have a customer that has a SINGLE IBM LTO External Tape Drive under which Tape Media Pools were setup and then Backup Jobs were created and run using this media.
The Tape Drive then died and was replaced under Warranty but now all the Tape Media is still showing under the OLD Tape Drive which is now OFFLINE.
I understand that the Media sets are LINKED to the tape drive it was created under but my question is how do I get the Tape Media and associated Tapes across to the NEW Tape Drive without Removing the Tapes from Inventory and then deleting the Media Sets under the OFFLINE Tape drive and then recreating the Tape Media Sets under the NEW tape drive and then having to Inventory all the tapes and then add them to the relevant Tape Media Pool?
Is there an easier way to do this? I've read through the Manual but cannot see anything covering this topic..


Have FUN!
Michael Pozar

[veremin]

Since media pool is associated with tape device (library/drive), it seems that that, apart from manual inserting and inventorying/cataloging tapes, there is no easy way to move media pool from one drive to the other.

You can always open the ticket with our support team; may be, they are aware about the database tricks that will help you to correlate the previously created media pool with the new device.

Thanks.

[mpozar]

Thanks for your response.

When I informed the customer he was NOT impressed but we went out to the customer at no charge and sorted it out for them so they are happy for now.

Is this likely to change in future releases of Veeam?

Veeam should allow the setup of a user defined device name to which you can then link the physical tape device and then the Tape Media is defined against the user defined name. If a tape drive fails and is replaced all that would be required is that the OLD drive is unlinked and the NEW drive is then linked to the user defined device name and everything is ready to go again. Don't know if this would be possible but would make every bodies life easier in this kind of situation.


Have FUN!
Michael Pozar

[veremin]

I can only say that for now there is a tight correlation between tape device and its media pools. These forums are thoroughly monitored for potential features/improvements. So, I would like to say thank you for your feedback; much appreciated.

Thanks.

[smallsheep]

I've also experienced exactly this issue with the replacement (RMA) of a failed tape drive. Due to the Media pool being tied to the now offline drive I'm looking at a customer site visit to re-label and re-inventory all the tapes. It would be really useful to be able to move tapes between media pools or move media pools between tape drives.

[Dima P.]

Matthew,
You experienced such behavior with standalone drive, right?

[gregransom]

Having exactly the same issue here.

Just replaced a faulty LTO5 Single Tape Drive and yes, all the old media pools and associated tapes are now stuck under the Offline tape drive.
This is really poor planning.

Hand up who has had a failed Tape Drive - probably a resounding "We all have".
Every other backup program I have used has allowed you to move media pools and tapes. It's the tapes in the media pools which are important not the physical tape drive.
Really, Veeam, this should be an easy feature fix.

So, I too will be left with having to cycle through my tapes re-labelling to the freshly created new media pool on the new tape drive. I'm glad we only just started and have little in the way of historical archive tapes.

In a DR situation you may well be restoring using an alternative tape drive in anycase.

Greg.

[veremin]

Hi, Greg,

As far as I'm aware, support team has a workaround for this issue that includes changing library ID inside product database. So, you can contact them and let them match the previously-created media pools to the newly-added library.

Thanks.

[sibinsam]

If we move the media pools by using the database script will the historical information about the data on the tapes be lost? Will we be able to run the Veeam One tape report and get the information about which tapes to insert into the library for specific backups?
Do we have to run any kind of re catalog or inventory for the moved tapes?

Also when we select a tape backup and start the restore wizard it prompts us to input the required tapes to complete the restoration process. Will Veeam show the tape numbers on the wizard after moving the media pools?

Details about the tape libraries:

LTO4 tape library which is not connected anymore to Veeam physical server. Tapes are marked as 000001, 000002, etc.

Newly added LTO6 tape library: Tapes are marked as 000001L6, 000002L6.
Imported LTO4 tapes are shown as 000001L4, 00000L2 etc.

[Dima P.]

Hello,

If we move the media pools by using the database script will the historical information about the data on the tapes be lost?

Honestly, I would rather import the media written by old drive, and then leave it in the imported pool. Once they are retired – erase them thru the UI and add to the new media pool. If you've received the script workaround from support team, kindly, double-check on their side what functionality could be affected.

Also when we select a tape backup and start the restore wizard it prompts us to input the required tapes to complete the restoration process. Will Veeam show the tape numbers on the wizard after moving the media pools?

This information is added to each tape metadata, so even if you load the media to the new B&R tape the next needed media for restore operation will be requested anyway

[20100]

Hi

We have been in the same situation a few days ago when we had the tape library replaced and had to manually recreate everything.

Could the "support workaround" be published please?
If we need to replace the tape drive after hours, etc, it might take up too long to get hold of support to get the info.

Hopefully the ability to move pools and tapes from one library to another will be implemented in a future patch/version as it is a common situation(too common to my liking!!)

Cheers

[veremin]

Could the "support workaround" be published please?

Unfortunately, not, as it modifies product internal database. Being applied wrongly, the script might result in severe issues. Thus, it's distributed only via support tickets.

[veremin]

Follow-up:

The mentioned script changing library IDs inside product database is not used by support team any longer. For those facing similar problems it's recommended to open a ticket with the support team and letting them decide regarding further necessary steps: be it removing tapes from UI and doing re-inventory, or re-creating everything from scratch (the worst case).

Thanks.

[futureweb]

We are in evaluation Veeam and faced this situation by partitioning the msl2024 which changed the library name and thus broke the relation. Will v9 settle this behaviour, as you wrote, multiple library support, so that you can switch Media Pools to new libraries?

Thanks
Patrick

[veremin]

See my answer in the adjacent thread. Thanks.

[t.gebler]

Also NOT Impressed, will open a Ticket

[veremin]

Hi, Tobias, can you elaborate on a specific issue you've experienced? Thanks.

[t.gebler]

same thing, changed a defective LTO4 internal Standalone drive (IBM-LTO4-HH) at a customer with an identical sparepart, now all the tapes are still stuck in the old media pool with the old (offline) drive.

[t.gebler]

FYI Case ID #01123675

[Dima P.]

Hello Tobias,

Thanks for sharing the case ID. I believe, you can do the following:

- Remove the affected tapes from the catalogue. It will force VBR to "forget" those tapes but wont erase the data
- Delete the media pool, since it’s not operational any longer
- Import tapes to the library. All previously written tapes will appear in the “Imported” media pool. You would not be able to continue the media sets on these tapes but you will be able to perform restore if you need.

Need to say that this importing issue and drive replacement case is carefully handled in the upcoming v9 version thanks to new Global Media Pool feature.

[p.funk]

It's the end of 2017 and I almost stuck in the same error.
So what did you guys do the last years?

I mean, however, we only had one drive and the tapelib is broken - so got an RMA with a new one - all the Tapes were inventoried to the new Tabelib&drive but in the Jobs they're still connected to the old one.

As (whyever) there are several mediapools for every day and job I have to recreat 24 Jobs by hand?
I didn't find an option like export current settings, so I have a chance to just type them by hand...

very sad

[Dima P.]

Hello Peter,

The problem does not exist anymore as media pools are no longer linked to a tape device (you have assign another device to the media pool with existing tapes). What Veeam B&R version are you using? Thanks.

[enricop]

I'm using Veeam B&R v10, we have changed the tape drive, if I try to assign the new tape to the Media Pool all tapes are gone!
And there is no way to add them to the media pool!

How can I move to new tape drive without reinserting all tapes? That REALLY painful!

Case # 04260518

[Dima P.]

Hello enricop,

You can follow the procedure described in this article - Replacing Tape Libraries. Cheers!

[enricop]

Unfortunately I don't have a "Tape library", I just have an LTO7 tape drive where the tape is manually loaded/inserted and changed every day.

How can it be that Veeam "does not support" the replacement of a tape drive?
We have some tape(s) off-site for security reasons (air gap, different location, you know...), and Veeam assume that when a tape drive fails....you need to recollect all your tapes in a single place and load each and every one in the drive! Really?

Looking at the forum it's more than 6 years that customers are having troubles with this...
Why not simply allow to modify/replace the tape in the media pool definition without removing all the tapes from the media pool??
Is there any good reason for deleting the tapes when changing the drive associated with a media pool?

[Dima P.]

enricop,

You can replace a standalone tape drive by following the steps from the article - there is no difference from Veeam B&R logic. I've asked technical writers team to correct the chapter to reflect that this procedure fits all devices, thanks for bringing this up!

[enricop]

Do I still need to load in the drive each and every tape?

[Dima P.]

Only if you need to continue these tapes during backup. If such media is required only for restore - you can keep it offline and load back when retention comes.

[enricop]

Of course I want to continue to continue using these tapes! I just had a failed tape drive that was replaced!

So, in case of a tape drive failure, Veeam expect that customers recollect all tapes in one place and reinsert each and every tape in the drive.
To me it seems that tape drive failure and subsequent drive replacement "is not supported" by Veeam B&R...and this problem is around since ever, this topic was started in 2014 and no improvement since then...go figure.

Anyway, with some marginal help from Veeam Support I received an update query, with wrong column name, advising to change an ID, without telling me what ID to use/change (after uploading my database as per their request). After some reverse engineering the database and some fantasy...I figured what the correct column name was and where to find the correct ID....

There is really room from improvement in many aspects...

[Dima P.]

Can you share the case ID please? Thank you!