Insert Tape to Continue...tape already in...

[dcrudo]

I wonder if anyone can help me out on this:

Everyday, before the backup job to to tape is scheduled, we get a warning "Insert a tape to continue" although the tape is already
in the drive.

It seems we get the message then the tape is automatically checked and the backup starts. The job finishes succesfully, but we
always get this warning.

I could not find anywhere to change this setting and in addition, i wonder if it would be possible to run an inventory check
around 4 PM and notify the user if the tape has not been inserted yet (like a preflight check).

Thanks a lot!

Dave

[veremin]

What happens if you try to inventory the drive first prior to starting a job? Thanks.

[dcrudo]

Inventoring the drive manually, will not trigger the email message...


thanks!
Dave

[veremin]

Then, you can just schedule the following script to take place around 4 PM:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeDrive -Name "Name of your Drive" | Start-VBRTapeInventory

Thanks.

[dcrudo]

Hi Eremin,

When i run the following command:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRTapeDrive -Name "Tape0" | Start-VBRTapeInventory

i get the following error:

Code: Select all

Start-VBRTapeInventory : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Medium'. The argument is null. Provide a valid value
for the argument, and then try running the command again.
At line:1 char:34
+ Get-VBRTapeDrive -Name "Tape0" | Start-VBRTapeInventory
+                                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (Tape0:PSObject) [Start-VBRTapeInventory], ParameterBindingValidationExcept
   ion
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Veeam.Backup.PowerShell.Cmdlets.StartVBRTapeInventory

I went to look for the details of the tape just issuing the Get-VBRTapeDrive and i get the following:

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Address      : 0
Device       : HUJ4472D45
Enabled      : True
IsLocked     : False
LibraryId    : 65f49f38-3241-4f33-9d0f-8bb42632c59b
Medium       :
Model        : HP Ultrium 5-SCSI
SerialNumber : HUJ4472D45
State        : Loaded
Id           : 527e3ac9-f6ca-45f7-b2ce-791cc9228dff
Name         : Tape0
Description  :

and i can see that the field Medium is null...

any idea?

I've looked at the configuration, but as i understand it, "medium" might get filled once the inventory is run.. (didn't try yet)...

Thanks!
Dave

[veremin]

Can you change a script slightly and see how well it goes?

Code: Select all

$Drive = Get-VBRTapeDrive -Name "Name of your Drive"
Start-VBRTapeInvetory -Library $Drive

Thanks.

[Joe_L]

I have a single LTO drive (not a library) and receive the above alert email when the job starts, despite having inserted a new blank tape before the job. Do I have to schedule a pre-job inventory for it to spot the new tape?

[Shestakov]

Hello Joe,
Do jobs work fine despite of the message? Is the warning triggered when the job is running?
Thanks.

[Joe_L]

Hi Nikita,

Yes jobs work fine, and I get the message just as the job starts.

Should I insert a pre-job script like the one above? Perhaps this should be a feature request...

Joe

[Shestakov]

Yes Joe, please give it a try.
Have you tried to inventory a drive before the job`s run?
Thanks.

[Joe_L]

Yes that works but I don't want tape operators to have to do that manually every time.
Joe

[Dima P.]

Hello Joe,
If you want to disable the Waiting for Tape email notification you can add the corresponding regkey to the VBR server:

DWORD WaitingTapeNotificationEnabled 0 (0 – disable / 1 - enable)

Also, I wonder if you are running the latest patch: we have corrected several bugs regarding the tape email notifications - worth checking.

[Joe_L]

I don't want to turn off the notifications in case someone forgot to put a tape in. The problem is its sending a notification when there IS a tape waiting but Veeam hasn't noticed it yet!

We're on 8.0.0.917 patch1

[Dima P.]

The problem is its sending a notification when there IS a tape waiting but Veeam hasn't noticed it yet!

Once there is no free media – you get immediate email notification, that’s correct. The automatic inventory to recognize the new inserted tape media will happen automatically (somewhat every 1 minute or so). Does the job start after you insert a new tape media or not?

[Joe_L]

The automatic inventory appears not to be working in the way I would expect: the tape has already been inserted some hours before but the tape drive is listed as empty in the GUI. If it was properly recognising new inserted tapes every 1 minute or so why is it not listed?

Then when the job starts at the scheduled time I receive an email alert "insert tape to continue". The job continues automatically (which is OK) but the alert message is redundant (which is not good as it could make someone think the wrong tape was inserted or make a journey to site unnecessarily).

[Dima P.]

Joe,
Now I see. Could you open a support case – the described behavior looks like a bug for me and needs to be fixed. Thank you in advance.

[Joe_L]

ok I opened a case and its been resolved this now. In case it helps anyone:

1) there does not seem to be any automatic recognition of tapes inserted to the drive. If you insert a tape the drive status remains "empty" indefinitely. I don't really understand why Veeam doesn't update the status.
2) if you run a job in this state you will get an "insert tape" notification. In my view this could be a problem as the correct tape has already been inserted and the redundant warning could lead to an unnecessary visit to site or incorrect corrective action by a tape operator.
3) This can be resolved as discussed above by running a manual inventory (not practical in my setup as there is no console near the tape drive) or setup a pre-job script to run the inventory.

In my case I had setup a script but was still getting Insert Tape notifications. The job log reported the pre-job cmd file had run correctly but it turned out the powershell script was failing and this was going unreported. The error turned out to be the script had omitted to add the VeeamPSSsnapin on the first line. Once corrected I stopped getting the unwanted notifications.

The corrected script is:

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    Add-PSSnapin -Name VeeamPSSnapin -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    $Drive = Get-VBRTapeDrive -Name "Tape0"
    Start-VBRTapeInvetory -Library $Drive

I'm pretty enthusiastic about the Veeam tape support but there do seem to be a lot of little tricks and gotchas such as the need to remember to attach scripts to jobs to get the desired behaviour.

[Dima P.]

Joe,
Thanks for the heads up and I am glad you are up and running now, but still want your case ID for research purposes as I think we need to correct this behavior.

[Joe_L]

Case # 00884232. feel free to contact me via the email used for the case.
Joe

[Dima P.]

Thanks Joe. It helps a lot – I’ll forward your case to QA team for investigation purposes and as I’ve said before I hope we’ll get it fixed.

[Dima P.]

Joe,
Is your VBR up to date with latest Update 2? I was told that some issues might be corrected in the said update, so I wanted to check with you if it’s possible to install Update 2 and check if behavior still persists? Thanks

[pgisclair]

I know this is an old thread, but I fought with this a bit to get it working, and this is what worked for me. I'm using V8 Standard, so I only have the File-to-tape option, if that matters.
I put this in a .ps1 file:

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ASNP VeeamPSSnapin
Get-VBRTapeLibrary | Start-VBRTapeInventory -wait
$tape=Get-VBRTapeMedium -DRIVE "Tape0"
$tape | Erase-VBRTapeMedium -wait -Confirm:$false
Move-VBRTapeMedium -Medium $tape -MediaPool "Free" -Confirm:$false

And called it from this batch file:
@ECHO OFF
Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File "D:\Scripts\InventoryFree.ps1"
EXIT

Then added that batch file to the Tape Job, Options/Advanced button/Advanced Tab/ in the pre-job script. Now the job recognizes the tape in the drive, moves it to the free pool, then backs up over it regardless of what's on it, which is what I want. I do a full backup of every file in the B2D folder every night.

All of this to tell Veeam to "Overwrite Tape". This should be a checkbox on the Tape Backup job, not a PowerShell programming project.

I hope this prevents someone else from wasting their time.

[Dima P.]

Hi pgisclair,

Thanks for a solid workaround. I wonder if you are aware of the Do not protect data (cyclically overwrite tapes as required) media pool retention option. If this option is selected, tapes allocated to the pool will be overwritten, starting with the tape that stores the oldest archive.

[pgisclair]

That's what I thought too. That was the first thing I tried. At some point I've tried just about every combination of every setting. I received the Waiting for Tape message again from last night's backup, so apparently my fix above is not a fix. I've been fighting with this for a month, Case # 01253146. Veeam techs have logged in to my system to check my settings, and we can't seem to get it back up without eventually getting the '[Warning] Insert a tape to continue' message. What's beyond me is how the Catalog and Erase jobs can say 'successful', but the media has 4.9GB available(of 390GB). My entire backup folder has 259GB in it. I should be able to back up the entire folder every night with room to spare. I'll double-check the 'Do not protect' setting again. Thank you for your help.

[Dima P.]

Cant check your case at the moment, so can’t you elaborate what version of VBR are you using? Thanks

[tom.mercer]

Got the exact same issue as reported here with a customer running the latest version of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.

A tape is put in each night for the job that starts the following morning at 7am. At just gone 7am every morning, an email is generated telling the user to insert a valid tape even though a valid tape is already in there and then the job proceeds to run regardless. This alert doesn't make sense.

[tom.mercer]

Just got off the phone with support and I've been told that this fix should be released in SP1 for Version 9 which is expected within the next month.

[Dima P.]

Hi Tom,

That’s true - thanks for getting back to us. This issue was reported in another thread and we are doing our best to get this resolved.

[JaxIsland7575]

Hi Dima!
I submitted a case and post in the other thread to try and get this fix myself. Here is the ticket #: 01737640

Cheers!

[Dima P.]

Hi guys,

The described issues are solved in Update 1. Time to upgrade: Release Notes for Veeam Backup & Replication 9.0 Update 1