Library-Independent Tapes

[mkretzer]

Hello,

we are in the middle of purchasing an additional tape library with the same specs as our previous library.
If i am correct a tape in V10 is still connected to one specific tape library so if i move one tape from one to the other we have to rescan.

Is there a solution for that problem in V11?

In other solutions (for example DataProtector) this issue simply does not exist, tapes are recordnized on the basis of its barcode.

Markus

[Dima P.]

Hello Markus,

The tricky part is when you need to replace one device with another. If you want to add additional tape library, you would need to register it in the media pool wizard and that's it. Cheers!

[mkretzer]

Perhaps how we handle tapes is not clear: We exchange the tapes out every week. Each library gets ~8 tapes all from the same media pool.
I am fairly certain tapes which were used by the other Lib do not get recognized in the then-current one. Which is kind of stupid.
Basically thats what the article you linked states - changing the lib means rescanning all tapes!

Am i wrong? I have even seen that after a firmware upgrade a lib was discovered as a new one - even after adding it to the pool we had to re-scan everything...

[mkretzer]

I checked V11 release notes and there are no changes in that area

[Dima P.]

mkretzer,

Sorry for the delay, we are still checking this scenario in the lab. I'll update this post once I get the results. Cheers!

P.S. Thanks to Kostya for updating the thread

[lyapkost]

Hi Markus.

Library rescan is not the same as tape/library cataloging. Library rescan takes several seconds and doesn't require loading tapes to drive and reading them. The only difference between your case and the one described in the UG is that you don't need to disconnect an old library but only to rescan it. Tapes will become offline and you only need to insert them into another libarary, rescan it and voila!

[mkretzer]

Hi,

so only a "barcode scan" is necesarry? And this is so also in V10?

Interesting, will test this ASAP. Perhaps (and hopefully) i am wrong.

Markus

[Dima P.]

Markus,

Should work the same with v10.

[mkretzer]

I just attached our new device to our Repo (we are now on latest V11).

As is worried it is NOT working. The tapes barcode is scanned but the tapes are not recognized. Now all our new tapes are labeled similar as our previous tapes and we cannot just use them in both devices without fully scanning them! This is quite bad!

[Dima P.]

mkretzer,

Can you please raise a case for me? I'll ask QA team to check it as soon as you share the debug logs.

[mkretzer]

Yes - forgot to post the number: 04819592

[Dima P.]

Investigating with QA team. Thanks!

[lyapkost]

Hi Markus. It is highly important to follow the exact procedure. If any of steps 2 to 5 is missed, one may observe two tapes with the same barcode, one in the original media pool, another in the Unrecognized. Are you positive all was made precisely as described? Anyway, we are ready review your case as soon as you provide the DB backup.

[mkretzer]

I cot confirmation that you received the database at 3:14 PM.

But i do not think that you have understood our isse: We don't want to replace anything! We want to use the same tapes in two devices at will - as it is possible in most other backup solution! To be honest, i see not one benefit "pinning" a specific tape to one tape library!
This is one of the strangest decision Veeam ever did!

[colohost]

Markus curious if you found a resolution to this? I'm going to be working on a tape scenario soon where we'll have tapes going between physical locations, and we'll be required to perform test restores as part of a disaster recovery plan. It will be a huge amount of work if we have to do a full read of every tape that gets loaded into the secondary location every week just to catalog and be able to restore, vs just VB&R knowing the tape moved to a new library.

[mkretzer]

No. There is currently no solution to this.

I really hope Veeam will change this ASAP!

[Dima P.]

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay, the issue is being investigated by RnD folks.

[mkretzer]

I got "The behavior that you observe is actually expected in current version of our product. My colleagues have already submitted a feature request, so required changes might be included in upcoming releases (unfortunately, we don't have any ETA)." from support

[saahi]

We are having same problem. Our customer takes tapes out from 2 different libraries and after expiration puts back in without checking was tape from lib1 or lib2. And same happened when we removed partitions from our library and gave all drives and slots to Veeam. As told rescan doesn't help but running invetory does the trick, takes ages to do so for 48 tapes.

One other thing I've been wondering is why there is no option in media pool to move expired tape to free pool? I know there is some scripts to do this but we are administering more than 100 Veeam installations and there is "few" customers using tapes. In case like this when there is more than 100 Veeam installations I don't see scripting as a solution. This option might even help in this library independent tapes situation, if it is done in a right way.

[wesser]

That's i also missing, because a media pool catches and collect many tapes out of the free-pool for just one event and doesn't release them after the protection time is over.
Could this be done by an other methode?

[mkretzer]

What is the status of this? Will it finally be fixed in V12?

[mkretzer]

Any news?

[Dima P.]

Hello folks,

Sorry for the delay but we had to restart the entire investigation from scratch for v12 and it's currently in progress. I'll update this thread myself as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

[mkretzer]

Dima,

if you need to understand the business case i am more than willing to explain everything to you in a remote session - we urgently need this feature!

Markus

[Dima P.]

Markus,

Thank you, we fully understand the need of tape migration between the libraries and the drives. I've checked v11a and upcoming v12 logic:

1. Configured two tape libraries, assigned those libraries to the same media pool (active or passive does not make any difference)
2. Created file to tape job with a single file and recorded the tape media via library #1
3. Exported the tape media (i.e. manually hit export tape to mark it as not present within the library)
4. Loaded tape media to library #2
5. Performed library #2 inventory
6. Was able to perform recovery from tape 2 without any issues
7. Was able to continue the same file to tape job this tape via library #2

It seems that two required actions are to tell B&R that this tape is offline in library 1 (which can be automated via job export functionality) and tell to the B&R that the same tape is now available at library 2 via regular import tapes procedure. Mind me asking, if thats going to work for your setup? Thank you!

[mkretzer]

Please read this thread again. I have explained numerous times that is does in fact NOT work with a barcode scan!

If we take a medium which is known to Library A to Library B we have do a manual scan of every tape. No other soltion i know ignores barcodes like this....

[Dima P.]

Hello,

I've reached you out via email to discuss the tape migration procedure. Thank you!

[wesser]

@Dmitry P: It would helpfull to know the solution of this issue. Would you publish this here too?

[Dima P.]

Hello wesser,

Have you tried this workaround? That's the only option available today with v11.

We've discussed how current logic needs to be improved and for v12 we plan to provide experimental option to disable the unnecessary barcode scan to make tape migration procedure better. Thanks!

[mkretzer]

Wow - will this be in the first V12?