Recycle expired tapes to other pools

[erottier]

Is there any news on this? I would love this feature.
I would guess this already should be discussed after all these months.

Maybe a roadmap?

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community erottier.

This feature is in the list of potential improvements but I cant provide any ETA. Consider your vote being added to this feature request, thank you!

[segfault]

It would be nice if there was an option to have expired tapes moved back to the free pool.

I have a 6 month and a 2 year GFS pool. Invariably, one pool has expired tapes in it while a job assigned to the other pool is blocked, waiting for tapes.

This would automate my Monday morning routine of manually moving the expired tapes to the Free pool so that the blocked job can resume.

--john

[veremin]

Hi, John, consider your vote counted. Thanks!

[MihaiC.]

Hello,
We received following reg key in a case not directly linked to this thread:

TapeGfsExpiredMediumSharing
Dword
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication\
Set to 1 (decimal)

This should allow any Media Type to use any expired tapes found in the same specific Media Pool.
Unfortunately it still does not allow usage of any expired tapes, from any Media Pools, situation which could have been easily solved with a simple "Move expired tapes to Free Media Pool".
Hopefully it will help some happy case of only one GFS schedule for all their backup needs.

Considering that this thread started in 2014 and assuming that this reg key option was added in 2019 (0 results currently in google when searching for this key), here is hoping that in 2024 we will have the full requested feature that exists in other backup software since at least 2000-2005.

For all other situations of combinations using multiple GFS Media Pools and/or multiple simple Media Pools, feel free to use/update following power shell scripts to meet your needs, instead of performing manual tasks:

if (!([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) { Start-Process powershell.exe "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$PSCommandPath`"" -Verb RunAs; exit }
asnp VeeamPSSnapin
Connect-VBRServer
$tape = Get-VBRTapeMedium | where {$_.isExpired -eq $True -and $_.ProtectedBySoftware -eq $False -and -Not $_.Description}
If($tape){
Move-VBRTapeMedium -Medium $tape -MediaPool Free -Confirm:$false
}
Disconnect-VBRServer

First line is for cases where the scripts needs admin permissions to run, you can remove it completely if it's not required for you.
$tape selection line has 2 exceptions in the example: protected tapes and / or with comments will not be selected for movement, even if they are expired. Feel free to remove/modify those exceptions as per your needs.
My recommendation would be to setup this script to run at the end of a Veeam job which runs more often than the backup to tape.
This will ensure that tapes expired while the backup to tape job is running will be moved to Free Media Pool.

[Clumsy Penguin]

I didn't find anything in the documentation about the discussed features. Can someone confirm that...

• Veeam has no GUI option to automatically offer expired tapes to other pools if the free pool is empty.
• Veeam has no GUI option to configure the preference if tapes should be taken from the free pool or available expired tapes.
• Veeam does not reuse tapes within the given GFS pool for different media sets (e.g., expired weekly won't be used for a new monthly).

[Didi7]

Unfortunately, as far as I know Veeam B&R is still not able to automatically move expired tapes to the 'Free' media pool and you have to check the media and move the media yourself manually!

I wonder when Veeam will incorporate this feature, as the thread is aging more and more.

Regards,
Didi7

[Dima P.]

Hello folks,

Yes, that's correct expired media whenever assigned to the media pool is being 'linked' to the media pool and will be re-used only within this media pool to keep the rotation predicable. We keep tracking this request. Thank you!

[TaylorB]

I have 4 media pools created for different jobs for controlling retention and number of concurrent tape drives being used. But I keep running into a problem where I will have lots of expired tapes in the library, but a job will sit all night waiting for tape because those expired tapes were from another pool. Then I have to manually transfer tapes from 1 pool to the other for it to continue. Is there a way to tell it to use ANY expired tape or to use them like Free tapes as soon as they expire? I mean once a tape is expired, I don't care what it gets used for, I just want the jobs to run. If that is not possible, any tips for managing this?

[HannesK]

Hello,
the tip is using PowerShell (see above)

Best regards,
Hannes

[Didi7]

And the far better tip would be ... Veeam would finally incorporate that request and move expired tapes automatically to the Free Media Pool, so that no manual intervention or PowerShell scripts are necessary.

Veeam B&R 12 is still in Beta, so that would be long awaited feature, that could finally make it into the product! As is in most competitors product already!

Any +1 as comment would be appreciated.

[mma]

I still miss this feature.. +1

(I hope my vote from december 2016 still counts )

[Didi7]

2016

[Dima P.]

Guys,

The solution for GFS has been implemented but it's not available in the UI. Have you tried the mentioned registry key to allow the expired tape media sharing across all media sets within a single media pool?

Code: Select all

TapeGfsExpiredMediumSharing
Dword
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication\
Set to 1 (decimal)

[Didi7]

Not everybody is using GFS

[Dima P.]

Didi7,

Understood, let me check with RnD folks.

[Didi7]

Great to know!

[matteu]

Hello,

I would like to know if I missconfigured something or if it's expected behavior.

I use new tape -> inventory -> move to free media pool.
Then a job run and this media is moved automatically to the mediapool associated.
I put out my media from the library and add it back when it's expired.
The media stays in media pool.

There is only powershell to automatically put in Free media pool all tapes with expired status ?

Thanks

[Mildur]

Hi Matteu

Moved your post to this topic.
Please read the answers from my colleagues.

There is a registry key, if you use GFS Media Pools.

Thanks
Fabian

[matteu]

Hello,

Thanks.

What do you mean for simple gfs ?

[Dima P.]

matteu,

Fabian meant to say that you can recycle tapes within the GFS media pool (to make the tape accessible when it's retired by all media sets within the GFS media pool) via the mentioned registry key. Moving tape from assigned media pool to another media pool unfortunately remains manual procedure, but we are investigating this request. Thank you!

[Mildur]

Yes, thanks Dima.
I forgot to delete the word „simple“.

[pvz]

+1
This would be a useful feature for us as well.

[Didi7]

Didi7,

Understood, let me check with RnD folks.

Any news about that Dima?

Regards,
Didi7

[Dima P.]

Didi7,

Unfortunately we do not have any hidden functionality to allow tapes to be moved to free media pool after expiration, only the mention GFS key to reuse the tapes across different media sets. I've noted an improvement request for the next version. Thank you for updating this thread!

[Didi7]

Quote: I've noted an improvement request for the next version.

I suppose for v12 then?

[f.neumann]

+1 really useful to use expired taped across all (gfs and standard) media pools! Please add to V12

[Didi7]

+1

[HannesK]

Hello,
V12 is already "overloaded"... when Dima talks about "next" version, then it's after V12

In any case, keep it coming

Best regards,
Hannes

[Didi7]