How to manually remove a tape completely from NetBackup/Media Manager.

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Document ID: 208420

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How to manually remove a tape completely from NetBackup/Media Manager.

Details:
First, if there are images on the tape, they need to be expired. This can be done by:
bpexpdate -ev <mediaid> -d 0

This will not completely free up the tape if the tape is frozen or suspended, so the
command(s):
bpmedia -unfreeze -ev <mediaid>
or
bpmedia -unsuspend -ev <mediaid>
may be needed.

At this point there will be no image database entries for that tape and the media database
should show the tape as not assigned therefore allowing the tape to be reused. However
sometimes the image database and the media manager database can be out of sync, and
the tape may show as still assigned, or if the tape has a NetBackup database backup on
it, there would be no image entry to begin with. When a tape shows an assigned date, but
no images are related to that tape, it will show up in the available_media report as
dbbackup. To tell if a tape actually has a dbbackup on it, the command:
vmquery -m mediaid
will show a status, where 0x0 means normal backups, 0x1 means NetBackup database
backup and 0x2 means Storage Migrator.
If it is 0x1, be certain this is not a database backup which will ever be needed.
If it is 0x2, it is in use by Storage Migrator and understanding of the use of the tape by
Storage Migrator (not covered here) is required.

To free up the tape, when it has an assigned date but no images in the database, the
command:
vmquery -deassignbyid <mediaid> <poolnumber> <status>
must be run, but the status will be displayed as 0x0, 0x1 or 0x2 and needs to be just 0, 1
or 2 in the vmquery -deassignbyid.

At this point the tape is available to be used for backups.

If the tape was bad or destroyed and that is why it is being removed, the command:
vmdelete -m <mediaid>
will remove the last remnants of information about it from media manager.

There are other options which may be specified for the above commands. Some are to

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specify server names, volume database host names, etc. If the NetBackup/Media
Manager setup is complex, those options may be needed. The full paths to the
commands mentioned are:

/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpexpdate
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpmedia
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/goodies/available_media
/usr/openv/volmgr/bin/vmquery
usr/openv/volmgr/bin/vmdelete
All but available_media have man pages.

Products Applied:
NetBackup BusinesServer 3.3, 3.4
NetBackup DataCenter 3.4
NetBackup v3.2 and prior (UNIX Platforms)
3.1.1, 3.2

Last Updated: June 20 2000 04:33 PM GMT

Expires on: 365 days from publish date
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about this document
Subjects:
NetBackup BusinesServer
Application: Media Management
NetBackup DataCenter
Application: Media Management
NetBackup v3.2 and prior (UNIX Platforms)
Application: Media Management
Best Practice: Internal Database, Media Management
Database: Media Management

Languages:
English (US)

Operating Systems:
AIX
4.1.5, 4.2, 4.2xxxx, 4.3, 4.3.1, 4.3.2

Auspex
1.9.1

TRU64

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5.0

HP-UX
10.2, 11.0

IRIX
6.2, 6.4, 6.5

Solaris
2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.6, 7.0 (32-bit), 8.0 (32-bit)

Digital Unix
4.0, 4.0 386, 4.0 878

Sequent PTX
4.0.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.1, 4.2.3, 4.4.2, 4.4.4

MP-RAS
3.02

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