Need to Unprotect/Free Uncrecognized Tape

[rreed]

Afternoon, everyone. We have some leftover tapes from our BE setup. They've been cleared for use in Veeam but two of them are marked Protected in Veeam. Protect, Mark as Free, and Remove from Catalog are all grayed out. I can't do anything w/ these tapes. Help please?

[veremin]

Is unprotect operation available for such tapes or not? Thanks.

[rreed]

Correct; (un)Protect, Mark as Free, and Remove from Catalog are all grayed out. Not an available option to use.

[veremin]

What happens if you execute the following PS command against one of protected tapes:

Code: Select all

Asnp VeeamPSSnapin
Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "Name of protected tape" | Disable-VBRTapeProtection

Thanks.

[rreed]

Same thing on the other one:

Code: Select all

Disable-VBRTapeProtection : Failed to unprotect a tape medium 000015L6. Medium is free
At line:1 char:38
+ Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "000015L6" | Disable-VBRTapeProtection
+                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Disable-VBRTapeProtection], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DisableTapeProtectionErrorId,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.DisableVBRTapeProtection

[veremin]

Strange behaviour, indeed. Might be a UI glitch or something.

The last thought I have is to erase a tape via PS and see whether it makes some difference:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "Name of your tape" | Erase-VBRTapeMedium -Long

Thanks.

[rreed]

Ugh... Confirmed via library GUI these tapes have their write protect notch flipped. Well, perhaps a feature request to check for write protect before doing anything and present the (idiot) administrator w/ a warning indicating? My bad, sorry for the false alarm. Good news is write protect notch does seem to be doing its job in this case. Many thanks as always for helping out.

Code: Select all

Erase-VBRTapeMedium : Unable to erase tape medium 000015L6 because it is hardware protected.
At line:1 char:38
+ Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name "000015L6" | Erase-VBRTapeMedium -Long
+                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Erase-VBRTapeMedium], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : EraseTapeMediumErrorId,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.EraseVBRTapeMedium

[veremin]

Glad to hear that you were able to nail it.

As to better visual representation of hardware protected tapes, we will definitely think about that.

Thanks.

[rreed]

After opening the WP notch, I had to power off/on the library, tape server, and VBR server before everything would come up and free these tapes. Veeam still swore they were WP'ed. I dunno, but at least I'll know next time I have a tape written in something else that has the WP notch flipped that I need to recycle into Veeam use I'll need to flip open and bounce everything.

[veremin]

You mean even after you'd opened WP notch, and inserted the tape back into library, it still was recognized as write protected media without any option available? Have you tried to re-inventory the tape after that or re-inventory the library as a whole? Thanks.

[rreed]

Correct, yes. After opening WP notch, Veeam still wouldn't recognize the tape was writable, even after re-inventory entire library. It took rebooting the library, tape server, and VBR server to finally realize the tapes were free. Was able to erase/move to Free pool and write normally after that. I dunno, but will know next time.

[Dima P.]

Hi rreed,

Thanks for the heads up. Can you check if write protected tape is displayed in the VBR’s UI? I believe it should have an icon with a lock displayed in the UI.

[rreed]

I...think it was? Rather, yes, it was, because at one point I may have manually protected the two tapes in Veeam to make sure they didn't get accidentally overwritten until I could restore their contents at a later time. I don't know if I had WP'ed them or set them to Protect first, or for sure if I had set them to Protect at all.

I'll try to keep an eye out next time I have to load a tape to restore, I always set my full or esp. important tapes' WP notch.

[nullifi]

I think I have the same or similar problem. I have two tapes that I can't do anything within Veeam, and they show the little lock icon in the lower right corner.

[veremin]

As mentioned above, it seems that write protection has been enabled for those tapes outside of VB&R (WP notch). Thanks.

[Stephan23]

I also have a case of a write protected tape. The write protection switch on the tape is set to unprotected, but it may have been set to protected in the past.
I have removed the tape from the catalog, tried to catalog/inventory the tape, inserted it to a different slot in the library, rebooted any involved server/library.
Get-VBRTapeMedium shows ProtectedByHardware as False if the tape was unknown before, but it switches to Ture if I try to erase/catalog it.
Disable-VBRTapeProtection results in an error:

Code: Select all

Disable-VBRTapeProtection : Failed to unprotect a tape medium M01B02. Medium is locked
Bei Zeile:1 Zeichen:59
+ Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name m01b02 | Disable-VBRTapeProtection <<<<
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Disable-VBRTapeProtection], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DisableTapeProtectionErrorId,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.DisableVBRTapeProtection

[veremin]

Disable-VBRTapeProtection won't help, since it disables software protection, while hardware one can be disabled only manually physically operating with a given medium.

Anyway, for some reason the said tape gets tracked as write-protected, so, kindly, open a ticket with our support team. Chances are, they will be able to modify wrongly reported parameter directly in product db.

Thanks.

[Stephan23]

Thank you for the quick reply. I will create a ticket. However I preferably need this tape today, do you think I could grab a new tape and put the same label on it as a workaround?

[veremin]

Use the same barcode, you mean? Why do you need to leverage this very same tape? As far as I can understand, you have spare tapes at hand. Thanks.

[Stephan23]

yes, i meant the same barcode. I don't need the very same tape (sorry, bad phrasing), that's what i meant with picking a new tape with the same label/barcode.
And just FYI, it works. So the wrongfully as protected tape is free of use.

[veremin]

Yep, you can do that, which you've already proved. So, something must have been wrong with that particular tape and that made product believe that it's still write protected. Thanks.

[Armonea]

Hello.

I need to unprotect a tape but the option is greyed out in the GUI. Only 'Inventory', 'Catalog' and 'Properties' are available choices.
I read on the forum that i should try to move the tape to a media pool. Did create a new pool 'Tapes' and put the tape in there: not able to unprotect. Also in PS no luck:

Code: Select all

PS C:\Users\Administrator> get-vbrtapemedium -name VEEAM016 | Disable-VBRTapeProtection
Disable-VBRTapeProtection : Failed to unprotect a tape medium VEEAM016. Medium is free
At line:1 char:36
+ get-vbrtapemedium -name VEEAM016 | Disable-VBRTapeProtection
+                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Disable-VBRTapeProtection], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DisableTapeProtectionErrorId,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.DisableVBRTapeProtection

Tried the erase option as mentioned in another of your threads, no luck:

Code: Select all

PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name VEEAM016 | Erase-VBRTapeMedium
Erase-VBRTapeMedium : Unable to erase tape medium VEEAM016 because it is <b>software</b> protected.
At line:1 char:36
+ Get-VBRTapeMedium -Name VEEAM016 | Erase-VBRTapeMedium
+                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Erase-VBRTapeMedium], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : EraseTapeMediumErrorId,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.EraseVBRTapeMedium

Checked the protection notch: OK
Restarted the VEEAM server. Restarted the tape library., no luck.

I'm at the end of my tricks here...

Has anyone an idea what else i could try?

Thanks.

[veremin]

If mentioned trick does not help and you are positive that tape is not protected (WP notch; Library Interface) , then, reach our support team for further assistance.

[geordi]

Hi there

Similar issue here
I have a LTO-6 drive and multiple tapes (LTO4 and LTO6) which had been used by BE. All the tapes are available to be used and there is nothing that needs to be kept.
I already have used two LTO6 tapes without any problems. Now I have tried two different LTO4 tapes and both of them show up as locked.

Disable-VBRTapeProtection tells me the medium is free.
Erase-VBRTapeMedium tells me the medium is hardware protected.

The notch is set to not protect.
Playing with it (set to protect / unprotect), reloading into drive, restarting the server ... nothing is working.
Any ideas?

To be honest, I am completely new to the whole tape thing. Is it even possible to use LTO4 tapes with an LTO6 drive?
Also, every time I inventory the drive, the same medium gets listed as a new (protected) tape.

Regards,
geordi

[lyapkost]

Hi Michael.

LTO6 drive can only read LTO4 tapes and cannot write (see here). Do you have the same problem with LTO6 tapes?

[emicen]

I've had the same issue, I've solved with a right click on the tape and selected inventory, after a tape read it's showed not protected