Commvault tapes stop writing before full

Commvault tapes stop writing before full

Why do our CommVault tapes stop writing before they are full? We get a message that there is no media. When I check the tapes, there is plenty of valid data space and the tapes are not marked full.

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchDataBackup.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Because your job never seems to get any easier, it’s our goal to keep you up-to-date on the latest backup tips, trends and technologies that will help you get the job done.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchDataBackup.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchDataBackup.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

There are a few situations where this condition can be encountered. However, without more details about the actual error and hardware configuration, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly the source of the problem. Below are a few suggestions:

Tape errors:
Sometime the tape drive can encounter a media error that is interpreted by the device as an EOT (end of tape) signal. This leads the device to mark the tape as full and stop writing. This error condition does not typically occur with all media in a library making it easy to diagnose but hard to predict. If this is your case, this could be the starting point for troubleshooting.

Configuration:

  • Check the "Appendable" and "Use Appendable Media for (n) Days option" from the Media tab of the library properties; the number of days might be set lower than it takes you to fill a tape.

  • A job option which has the Start New Media option enabled, will not use appendable media.

  • Synthetic full backups will not use appendable media.

    • This was first published in April 2006