Forum Discussion

esco's avatar
esco
Level 4
10 years ago

Overwriting and Appending to tapes

Hi, I am using BE 2014. I have two tapes in my autoloader. For tape A the "Overwrite Protected Until" column says 25 Jan 2015 and for the tape B it is 20 Jan 2015. For both the tapes the "Appendable Until" column says Not appendable. When I run a backup job now the backup is done to tape B. My concern is once the tape B gets full what will happen to the backup jobs. Are they going to overwrite the contents on tape B or use tape A? I do not want to overwrite the contents on tape B as I am taking one time backups which I want to store for life time.

Any documents which explains how the tapes are used?

2014
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  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    10 years ago
    When tape B is full, the OPP will kick in and the tape is protected so it would not be overwritten. Tape A would also not be used because it is still write protected. Your job would require another overwritable tape. You should familiarize yourself with this document and understand how OPP and AP work http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH5459
  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Have a look @ this ~

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO98895

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago
    When tape B is full, the OPP will kick in and the tape is protected so it would not be overwritten. Tape A would also not be used because it is still write protected. Your job would require another overwritable tape. You should familiarize yourself with this document and understand how OPP and AP work http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH5459
  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    For tape A the "Overwrite Protected Until" column says 25 Jan 2015 and for the tape B it is 20 Jan 2015.

    I do not want to overwrite the contents on tape B as I am taking one time backups which I want to store for life time.

    FYI, these statements are contradictory.  If you want to protect Tape B forever, then you need to adjust your overwrite protection time to "infinite".  the links porivuded above should guide you.

  • esco's avatar
    esco
    Level 4
    10 years ago

    Those dates were given by BE2014. Hence I am trying to figure out a way to make them infinite.

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    The dates are given by BE based on the media set's defined OPP and the time when the backup set was written to.

    If you want the tapes to be overwrite protected, you can create a media set with the OPP as Infinite. Additionally, you can "slide" the write protect marker on the tape to make it overwrite protected.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    10 years ago
    Read the Admin Guide from Managing Tapes on page 378