Job not using expired tapes in GFS pool

[Woffle99]

Hi,

We have a job backing up to tape using a GFS media pool. We have a 48 slot changer and currently most of the tapes that are in there are marked as 'Expired', having been used for older weekly backups where the retention has now run out. However the current monthly backup job, that usually spans four tapes, keeps pausing and asking for a tape. It's on tape three at the moment and each time I have had to mark one of the expired tapes in the GFS media set as 'free', at which point the job picks it up, adds it to the GFS media set again and keeps going.

Why is it not automatically using any of the tapes that have 'expired' - that is what it's supposed to do, right?

[lyapkost]

Hi. No, it's not supposed (see note). Howewer it's planned to introduce a registry key changing such behavior the way you've described. Keep tuned.

[Woffle99]

Thanks for the response and I'm glad to see that the option will soon be introduced. I have to admit to being a bit surprised that this isn't the default already though as I can't really see a usage case why you would not want it to work in this way?

What it basically means now then is that I can't just set and forget it, but every month I have to check before the monthly job runs to make sure that the weekly job hasn't taken all of the tapes - is that correct?

Cheers.

[Dima P.]

Woffle99,

Indeed such behavior remains default, but we have plans to change it due to multiple requests. Thanks for your post - I've added your vote to this feature request!

[Hoegimator]

Hi,

Just wanted to ask if there is now a registry key for that scenario with version 9.5 update 4 ?

Thanks
Joerg

[lyapkost]

Hi Joerg. The key is there. Please contact support to obtain it.

[Hoegimator]

Ok thanks. I thought it would be publicly available. Will contact support then.

[Vishwa]

Hi
I have the similar issue, where expired tapes are not automatically used. We either 'Mark the tape as free' or move it manually to 'Free' media pool, else the job just sits there until it gets a free tape.
Its such a pain. We are on the latest version Veeam Update 4b (build 9.5.4.2866). Will the registry key help me in this situation to change the default behavior. It should be built into the product and give the user to change this option. Can not understand why that's not the case.

[Nodnarb]

I've also contacted support about this. Thank all!

[Nodnarb]

Hi Joerg. The key is there. Please contact support to obtain it.

I created support case 03909758. Can you confirm if the key provided was the correct one?

[lyapkost]

Hi Brandon. The provided key name is correct however the correct path is: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication. After setting the key restart Veeam services and check in C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup\RegistryOptions\Veeam Backup and Replication.log the line

Code: Select all

Info     [Options] The new option [keyname] has appeared. Value: 1.

[Nodnarb]

Thanks lyapkost! I moved the key to the path your provided and verified it appeared in the Veeam Backup and Replication.log file.

[dasfliege]

Is there any plan to make it the default behavior to use expired tapes? Or can anyone explain why it won't?
I mean, this is exactly what retentions are used for. Imho there is no single reason why expired tapes should not be used automatically.

[Dima P.]

Hello dasfliege,

The most common use case is to keep using specific tape media within specific media pool for example these three tapes are my weekly backups to tape for backup files from jobs A, B, C. Returning tapes to retired media pool makes tape media usage random, so you cannot standardize where to find the needed data and which tapes should be imported / exported as a part of the backup daily routine. Hope it helps!