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Why is a copy to tape ageing and flagging the tape as 'retired" and not just reusing the tape?

  • 8 February 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 649 views
T
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So, I have a single storage policy with a copy that has data aging (turned on) and basic retention after 1096 days, 1 cycle.  The copy writes to tapes.

Based on this chart: Identifying Media Icons (commvault.com) the tapes are ageing and then being flagged as “Aged Media” and then eventually (I guess) “Aged Retired Media”. and it seems like from there, the tapes are not showing (in the individual tape status) they are unusable (full, broken, etc), just they seem to sit there and not be used any more, and they are empty (0 bytes showing, view→ contents = no contents shown).

I’ve never done it, but it looks like I can manually click on the tape and right click → options → mark media reuseable and it will… mark it as completely free and useable again (or does it still tie it to the storage policy that wrote to it)?  I’m not sure if this is the “recommended” way to do it, or if there was a way to automatically flag these (like when aged makes it 0 bytes) so it makes it re-useable again when its empty.

3 replies

O
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Media can be marked for read/write errors due to the media itself or the drive having an error. If you know the drive was having errors while using this media, it is likely okay to reset them and mark it for reuse. However, if it was the media itself, it would be best to retire. Generally, it is best to check with the media manufacturer for recommended uses and life cycle and make sure you are not exceeding the recommended usage on the packaging of the media itself.

If you do not know if the drive was having issues, it is best to retire the media to be safe, as data may no longer be readable from it in the future.

If you are seeing a large amount of media with this error, it is likely a drive issue and it is recommended you contact the tape drive manufacturer. 

T
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Userlevel 2
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Media can be marked for read/write errors due to the media itself or the drive having an error. If you know the drive was having errors while using this media, it is likely okay to reset them and mark it for reuse. However, if it was the media itself, it would be best to retire. Generally, it is best to check with the media manufacturer for recommended uses and life cycle and make sure you are not exceeding the recommended usage on the packaging of the media itself.

If you do not know if the drive was having issues, it is best to retire the media to be safe, as data may no longer be readable from it in the future.

If you are seeing a large amount of media with this error, it is likely a drive issue and it is recommended you contact the tape drive manufacturer. 

This appears to be just 1 storage policy having this issue (repeatedly) as we don't have “infinite” data retention set on the tapes for it like the others, so I don’t think it’s a physical drive or media related issue.  This may sound crazy, but currently we don’t recycle tapes so they are all new when they are first used, and all other tapes being used are not and have not had issues like this (with a few exceptions, like maybe 1 or 2 tapes per year.. but usually it is a physical drive issue and we have had drives replaced via vendor analysis/troubleshooting when it happens). I’m just wondering why the tapes are being flagged as ‘aged’ and ‘aged retired” and not automatically set/flagged to be reused if they are empty.  What’s the logic of ageing data off a tape, making it 0 bytes and then flagging it in such a way it never gets re-used unless there’s some manual intervention to un-flag it?

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We had a similar issue with tapes that were external (by using the Locations). When they got returned they were added to the Scratch pool, but due to them being marked as ‘Aged’ they weren’t automatically re-used.

Deleting & Discovering them resulted in us being able to re-use them (you’d think the recall wizard would help, but the tape keeps being marked as aged...), but what’s the deal with this not happening automatically?

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