Export tape when full?

[willn]

Did a search and couldn't find any information on this, but what I am trying to do is export tapes once they are full and not only after a backup is done.

To me, it would be a waste of space if I did a backup that was only 20GB written to tape and then exported it leaving 1.2TB free to use on another backup.

So the main question is, how would I achieve an "export tape when full" option since it doesn't look like there is a built in one.

[Dima P.]

Hello William,

Currently you can create media pool with the option:

●Do not create, continue using the current media set. If this option is selected, each subsequent backup session will write its backup set to the existing media set: it will append backup content to the content that was written to tape with a previous backup session. If, however, a backup set is started with a new tape, Veeam Backup & Replication will create a new media set for it.

This would ensure all the allocated tape space would be used by tape job, once the tape is filled, you can eject it manually.

[willn]

OK, yes, I knew about this functionality as it is default, but it sounds like exporting the tapes at the end of the media set is not an option?

In other words, if I write the same job to 4 different tapes throughout the week and then I export on Sunday, the export only exports the last tape that was written and not the whole media set. Is there a way to change this?

[veremin]

In this case, you should create media set on weekly basis (Media Pool -> Media Set -> Daily at -> Days), and export tapes on specific days only (backup to tape job -> Options -> Export current media set -> Days). This way, weekly worth media set, not just one media, will be exported on the given day. Thanks.

[willn]

So, that is what I have done. The issue is, like what happened yesterday.

The last tape to write is the one that gets exported. The previous tapes in that same media set do not. I had to manually export them.

Any ideas how I could get it to export the entire media set and not just the last tape in the set?

[deduplicat3d]

William,

I had the same problem as you. I ended up writing a powershell script that is run weekly and exports all non-expired non-empty media.

Code: Select all

Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapIn
 
Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isoverwriteprotectionperiodover() -eq $false -and $_.isfree -eq $false -and $_.isonline -eq $true} |  Export-VBRTapeMedium

[willn]

deduplicat3d, Thank you!

I figured it would be through the use of powershell, just didn't see anyone else with similar problems. I would like to officially request this as a feature change.

[veremin]

I've passed this information to the QA team. If they confirm this unexpected behavior, we will mark it as a bug. Otherwise, I will ask you to open a ticket with our support team. Thanks.

[willn]

So, I wanted to follow up with this issue. I just ran into a problem when trying to use the isoverwriteprotectionperiodover() method equal $true for getting free tapes.

This method is giving me tapes that should NOT be expired and are still in the retention period.

Is there another method or attribute I should be looking at for pulling tapes that are over retention period?

[veremin]

What are the retention settings of the given media pool and when the data was written to the suspected medium last time? The latter can be checked via the following script:

Code: Select all

(Get-VBRTapeMedium -name "Name of the tape").LastWriteTime 

Thanks.

[willn]

The retention settings are for 14 days for these particular tapes that show up on the command I am running, but it is showing tapes that were just written to less than a week ago. Here is the command I am running:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isoverwriteprotectionperiodover() -eq $false -or $_.isfree -eq $true -and $_.isonline -eq $false -and $_.MediaPoolId -eq "8e4f3ba0-86cc-4538-aa0b-5099721d12c6"} | select barcode | sort-object -property barcode

Really, I just need to know if there is a cmdlet, attribute, or method that I can run that would provide me tapes that are out of retention period and are available to write to? Is this as simple as looking at the "IsFree" attribute?

[veremin]

Code: Select all

$_.isoverwriteprotectionperiodover() -eq $false

The abovementioned command returns the tapes which overwrite protection period isn't over yet (Is overwrite protection over? No=$False). If you want to get tapes that can be overwritten, you should specify $True value, instead.

Thanks.

[willn]

OK, I think I was mixed up on my logic then, but even if I set that to $true, I am getting tapes returned that were written to during the last media set, i.e. not expired.

[veremin]

Hmmm, looks strange. Being equal to $True, the said parameter should definitely indicate only the tapes with expired protection period. May I ask you to run the following script (without additional "-and", "-or" conditions) and see whether it lists some tapes which overwriteportecion period isn't over yet?

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isoverwriteprotectionperiodover() -eq $True} | select barcode, lastwritetime

Thanks.

[willn]

OK, sorry, disregard. I am very sorry for wasting your time.

I just realized I had retention set to 8 days and the tapes it is returning are actually over that period. Thanks for the quick responses.

I did have one more question though.... Could I just look at the IsFree attribute to determine if the tape is out of retention or does this just mean that it is empty?

[veremin]

Could I just look at the IsFree attribute to determine if the tape is out of retention or does this just mean that it is empty?

From my perspective, if you want to catch cassettes that can be overwritten, you'd better use "isoverwriteprotectionperiodover()" parameter, because it captures both expired and free mediums, while IsFree only empty mediums. Thanks.