Erase is greyed out when I change tapes

[Whitemtntn]

Quick erase, Erase, Catalog, Format are not available from any menus when I change tapes each day. I must restart the services, then they become available, and I can do the erase. This is very annoying. Has anyone seen this behavior?
I just upgraded from Backup Exec 9.1 to version 10.1 and that's when this started.
Using HP StorageWorks Ultrium 460 LTO tapes.

Thanks for your help.
-Jack

 

[steveot]

Try deleting the drive out of backup exec and cycling the services. You must inventory the tape everytime you change a tape.

 

[Whitemtntn]

This is the 2nd time through the system with these tapes-- they been used for a backup and now have come around again-- doesn't that make them Inventoried already?

-Jack

 

[Whitemtntn]

The problem is not Inventory. This tape has already been Inventoried. Just to test I performed an Inventory, (which did work and the Erase became available), then Ejected the tape and put it back in. The options became greyed out again and did not come back.
Basically when the tape is inserted, it is not updating the interface by recognizing the tape is there, until you either do another Inventory or restart the services......

 

[LawnBoy]

I'm running a couple of versions of BE. BE 9.1 for Netware will recognize a tape change, BE 10 for Windows will not, requiring an inventory every time a tape is inserted (as steveot says).

 

[Whitemtntn]

I never had to do this in version 9.1, which I've used for 2 years.
Only since I upgraded to version 10.

 

[Whitemtntn]

Besides - it's not the Inventory really-- the tape is already inventoried. If I restart the services, it accomplishes the same thing. This looks like a bug.

 

[LawnBoy]

If the tape is in the drive when you restart the service, an Inventory may be included as part of the service startup (insuring that after Windows reboots yet again your next scheduled job will run without intervention).

Either v10.x is no longer able to detect a tape insert, or it can but doesn't react to it. I have no idea why, or whether this is a bug, a feature, or a paradigm shift. It is a pain, I agree.

 

[justin2000]

You NEED to inventory for BE to see the tape - it is not a bug - I have always had to inventory a single tape drive with BE and with BE since 9.x you can now schedule an inventory before backup.

When you restart the services, an inventory takes place when the drive is checked.

 

[Whitemtntn]

Sorry to argue, but in version 9, all we ever had to do was insert the tape in order to have erase become available so we could erase it. We operated this way for over 2 years.

 

[steveot]

Either way the manual specifically states a inventory is required. Schedule a inventory job. Why would you have to erase a tape if media sets are configured properly?

 

[Whitemtntn]

that's the way we do it. We do a full backup every night -we don't use the Grandfather-Father-Son feature.
Even if we schedule an Inventory-- we still have to perform a Quick erase or else the backup will fail.
Am I incorrect?

 

[steveot]

No you shouldnt have to erase a tape. That is more wear and tear on tapes. If you goto tools option media management what do you have the overwrite protection set to ? None, Partial, or FUll

 

[Whitemtntn]

Partial-- protect only allocated media.
So I can set it to "none" and it will just do an overwrite..

 

[steveot]

Correct otherwise you have to go into the media tab and right click on the media set and adjust the overwrite protection period. Its probably infinite dont allow overwrie now and you can change it to one day , etc