Feature Request: Graceful handling of filled library slot

[Meyercord]

When Veeam tries to return a tape from the drive to a tape library, it puts the tape back into the same slot it originally came from. If that slot has been manually filled in the meantime, however, such as by ejecting the magazine and placing a new tape into the slot, Veeam does not handle the situation in a graceful manner. It does not look for an alternate empty slot to store the tape, nor does it pause the job and ask the user to intervene - it simply fails the entire job outright.

I had this happen after a backup job burned through 11 tapes and asked for one more. I ejected one of the library magazines and stuck a new tape into an empty slot. This happened to be the slot that Veeam wanted to unload a tape into and when it discovered the slot filled, it terminated a backup job that had been running for 95 hours, rendering the entire backup useless. I suggest that when Veeam is unable to return the tape to the original slot, it select another available slot in the library. If there are no available slots, then pause the job and prompt the user to correct the situation.

[veremin]

There is a regkey allowing backup server to ignore slot failure and making it return medium to non-original slot in case original one isn't available.

In order to get it, kindly, open a support ticket and make a request there.

Thanks.

[Meyercord]

Hi Vladimir,
Thanks for the information. I'm glad there's a registry setting to change the behavior, but this won't help me recover the 95 hours lost to the previous job, nor will it help anyone else who isn't aware of the problem until after it kills their backup job. So my initial concern remains: Why is this the default behavior? What is the benefit of forcefully terminating a backup job without providing the administrator any opportunity to resolve the issue? It seems to me that the highest priority of a backup application should be to complete a backup successfully if at all possible.

I still propose that Veeam change the default behavior to handle the situation more gracefully when a full slot is encountered, without requiring the user to modify the registry.

[Dima P.]

Hi AJ,

I ejected one of the library magazines and stuck a new tape into an empty slot.

Was it an import/export slot by any chance?

[veremin]

The registry key has been added down the road. So, it's still in testing stage and being distributed among limited number of affected customer and direct supervision of support engineers.

Anyway,thank you for the feedback; much appreciated.

Thanks.

[Meyercord]

Dmitry,

No, it was a standard tape slot