Accidentally marked tapes as free that shouldn't be free

[rdavies]

I accidentally marked a few tapes as free when I shouldn't have, and I need to restore the backups from them. Can I do this? I re-cataloged the tapes, but I still don't see the restore point when I go to restore tape to repository. Am I missing a step?

I also noticed some strangeness on the tapes themselves after being re cataloged. 1 of 3 tapes doesn't have any files on it, and another has an icon next to a .vbk file that I have never seen before--a red paper with a slash cut through it. The third tape seems fine, on a surface level.

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the forums rdavies.

Catalog operation should detect and let you see previously written data to tape (for the tapes that were marked as free). Can you please right click the tape and go to properties to see the files stored on this media? Cheers!

[rdavies]

Hello, Dima, as I said above, I did look at the files stored on the media. I'll just copy and paste what I said before:

"I also noticed some strangeness on the tapes themselves after being re cataloged. 1 of 3 tapes doesn't have any files on it, and another has an icon next to a .vbk file that I have never seen before--a red paper with a slash cut through it. The third tape seems fine, on a surface level."

I still don't see the restore point anymore when I go to restore that data.

[Dima P.]

Thanks for the confirmation that this info comes from tape media properties. I'd recommend to raise a support case and let our support team check the debug logs. Once you have the case ID please share it with us. Cheers!

[Moebius]

I don't know whether it's the same situation, but today I catalogued a set of 2 tapes that had somehow been removed by the inventory. They contain just one large file that spans on two tapes.
The first tape I catalogued also showed a "red paper with a slash cut through it" until I catalogued the second tape of the set; at that point the icon shown on both tapes went back to normal. I guessed it means an incomplete file, until the system recognizes where the missing part is.

[rdavies]

Re: Moebius. Hmm...that's possible. All the tapes in the set have been cataloged, but perhaps something went wrong here. I cataloged each tape one by one, instead selecting all at once. Maybe that could have caused a problem...

[Dima P.]

Hi folks,

Discussed the issue with QA folks - this issue might be related to catalog operation of the sequentially written tape media when actual catalog for all the media has been performed in parallel. If you face this issue try to mark as free the affected tapes and then catalog each tape one by one. That should build the correct 'links' between the data on tape. Hope the helps!