The first part of this guide shows you how to erase the contents of a tape completely, say for instance if you want to be able to place that tape into a Scratch Pool (which you can't do if DataCenter has past history of writing data to the tape stored in DataCenter's database and flat data files). The second part of the guide covers how to clear the database data held for that tape that you did erase to be able to place that tape in the scratch pool as an available scratch tape. These instructions only cover DataCenter installed on a Windows system, and applies to versions 6/7/8.
How to erase a tape that has been used by DataCenter (version 6/7/8) in the past, and then assign it to a scratch pool (to be used for new backup jobs to write to it). At that point it will be treated as a new tape, with null values for the amount of data stored, number of backups and the age of the backups on that tape; it will be treated as a new tape starting from scratch / zero (null). This guide is divided into two parts, the first half being how to use the 'hiscsi erase' command to erase a tape, and the later half being how to place that tape that was just erased back into a Scratch pool so that backups can utilize and store to it. The default installed folder where the DataCenter executables exist for Windows is 'C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape\', but your install could be different as the DC Command Server and Client does allow custom installation paths. The instructions for erasing a tape also do apply to a single tape drive and not just a tape library, in that case it is just simpler with less steps involved.
Start an Administrator Command Prompt on the machine with the tape library device or single tape drive device attached to it directly:
Change to the folder where DataCenter is installed and then to the Hiback\tape folder, in our example this is C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape\.
C:\Users\Administrator>cd C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>dir *.exe
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4C8C-7015
Directory of C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape
05/14/2019 06:12 AM 164,768 hijacc.exe
05/14/2019 06:12 AM 138,656 hiscsi.exe
05/14/2019 06:13 AM 98,208 kuk.exe
05/14/2019 06:19 AM 389,536 mpx.exe
05/14/2019 06:19 AM 95,648 mpxinfo.exe
05/14/2019 06:19 AM 165,792 ophaixlib.exe
05/14/2019 06:20 AM 182,176 ophijacc.exe
05/14/2019 06:20 AM 139,168 putMM.exe
05/14/2019 06:21 AM 108,448 remlib.exe
05/14/2019 06:21 AM 507,808 tapemac.exe
10 File(s) 1,990,208 bytes
0 Dir(s) 875,681,882,112 bytes free
The 'hiscsi' executable / command can support the following command line "switch" options, we will only be using the scan, stat, info, and erase switches:
If you execute the "hiscsi" command with no parameters you will see the various commands that can be performed with that executable; you will see in the output that '-erase' is the parameter to erase a tape:
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
Usage: hiscsi [option] [device]
-scan scan SCSI-Bus for devices
-init [AxBxSxLx] initialize Changer
-info [AxBxSxLx] info for Changer (x=adapter/bus/target/lun)
-info [TapeX] info for TapeX
-stat [AxBxSxLx] changer status
-move [AxBxSxLx] [?from] [?to] where ? is type d/s
-eject [AxBxSxLx] [or TapeX], eject tape from drive
-erase [AxBxSxLx] [or TapeX], erase tape
-tag [AxBxSxLx] [tag/*] show or find tags
-cfg [AxBxSxLx] write hijacc.tpl cfg-template
-f <file> redirects stdout to <file>
-dump dump extra information
-ver prints the version information
First, execute the 'hiscsi -scan' command to retrieve your tape library (changer) address, and the tape drive(s) in that library's address, it will display 'Changer?' next to that device name/ID string, in the example below the tape library has a changer address (A01B00S00L01) and the first tape drive 'Tape 1' (A01B00S00L00) and second tape drive 'Tape 2' (A02B00S00L00) in the library that we need to know the 3 addresses for. It is very important that you get these changer and tape addresses recorded correctly as to their current assignments.
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -scan
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A00B00S00L00 Y Disk WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1
\\.\SCSI0: with (1) devices
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A01B00S00L00 Y Tape1 IBM 0359260F
A02B00S00L00 Y Tape2 IBM 0359260F
A01B00S00L01 N Changer? IBM 03584L22
\\.\SCSI1: with (2) devices
Then issue the 'hiscsi -stat' command on the changer device to see what tapes are currently in the library device:
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -stat A01B00S00L01
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI1:
Open device \\.\SCSI1:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A01B00S00L01 N Changer? IBM 03584L22
\\.\SCSI1: with (1) devices
Type No El# Stat Tag Info
Drive 1 257 empty ----- A01B00S00L00
Drive 2 258 empty ----- A02B00S10L00
Trans 1 1 empty -----
Trans 2 2 empty -----
Im/Ex 255 1023 empty -----
Slot 1 1025 full 000002L7
Slot 2 1026 empty -----
Slot 3 1027 full 000003L7
Slot 4 1028 empty -----
Slot 5 1029 empty -----
Slot 6 1030 empty -----
Slot 7 1031 empty -----
Slot 8 1032 empty -----
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>
In our case after issuing the stat command above, we see two tapes, 000002L7 and 000003L7 (read from the barcode labels that are assigned on each tape), and they are in Slots 1 and 3 in our library / changer, device ready to load the tape into one of the tape drive(s) in that library which we cover next.
If you have access to DataCenter's GUI software and the Tape Library Management area of the GUI software is working as to be able to display the Library tab in that area, where all of the tapes in each slot are shown, then you can right click on the tape in question that you want to erase from that GUI interface, it will tell you what tape is then loaded into the tape drive(s) in the library. In order to erase the tapes you will have to do that via the command line on the computer that has the tape library device (or single tape drive device) directly attached to it. If your DataCenter GUI cannot be utilized for this task, then you can do it all via command line as far as loading and unloading tapes, and erasing the tape. If you are unable to utilize the DataCenter GUI to performing the loading and unloading of a tape, skip to below to read about how to use your tape library manufacturer's web management interface to load and unload the tape in question in the library. Note: If it is a single tape device and NOT a tape library / changer, and you want to erase a particular tape, then you can just manually insert the tape into that single tape drive of course.
From your tape library system's own web management interface / executable software load the tape that you want to erase in to one of the tape drives. In this example we will show erase two tapes by loading the two tapes in to two of our tape drives in our library. In your case you could do this from one tape drive. Our tape library device has two tape drives in it, the tape drive identifiers are A01B00S00L00 for 'Tape 1' and A02B00S00L00 for 'Tape 2'. In order to see the actual tape drive identifier on your changer device you will need to view your changer (Autoloader) configuration file located in the 'C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape\' folder on the computer with the tape library directly attached to it. The folder will contain one more more .cfg files, some of these .cfg files are unrelated to what you need, one will be the name of your Library Partition as defined in DataCenter GUI > Storage Management > Backup Servers > name of command server > Libraries > Library partitions. In our example the file is "IBMLib-all-drives.cfg". Open that file in notepad and look for "driveaddr", it may exist multiple times if you have multiple tape drives in this Library partition. In our example the first string is "driveaddr:1:A1B0S0L0" as seen below:
##############################################
# Autoloader-Config (C) NovaStor GmbH 2011 #
##############################################
media:UNKNOWN
lib:IBMLib
mmserver:win-usqjnp8vsgi
remote:win-usqjnp8vsgi*IBMLib-win-usqjnp8vsgi-win-usqjnp8vsgi.lcfg
# Driveinfo: IBM 0359260F
driveserial:00000780CE3A
driveaddr:1:A1B0S0L0
drive-name:D257:A1B0S0L0
# Driveinfo: IBM 0359260F
driveserial:00000780CDDA
driveaddr:2:A2B0S0L0
drive-name:D258:A2B0S0L0
last.drive-mapping.check:2019-06-19 17:30:55--7:00
last.driver.check:null
NOTE: A1B0S0L0 is the short format of the full device name/ID A01B00S00L00. Either the short or the long format for the device name/ID can be utilized with the 'hiscsi' command. We mainly use the long format device name/ID in this example, but either can work. Another item to note as that tape barcodes / labels in DataCenter are always 8 characters in length.
You can utilize the 'hiscsi -info' command on the tape drive device to see what tapes are currently in the tape drive; this should show the Medium type (Media type such as LTO6/7/8), Capacity: (used space), Remaining: (remaining space) properties:
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -info A01B00S00L00
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI1:
Open device \\.\SCSI1:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A01B00S00L00 Y Tape1 IBM 0359260F
\\.\SCSI1: with (1) devices
Tapedrive - - -
Position : get move
Filemarks : move write
Position : reverse rewind
Medium - - -
Capacity : 0 GiB
Remaining : 0 GiB
Blocksize : 0 Kib
Status : RW
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -info A02B00S00L00
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI2:
Open device \\.\SCSI2:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A02B00S00L00 Y Tape1 IBM 0359260F
\\.\SCSI2: with (1) devices
Tapedrive - - -
Position : get move
Filemarks : move write
Position : reverse rewind
Medium - - -
Capacity : 0 GiB
Remaining : 0 GiB
Blocksize : 0 Kib
Status : RW
Note: In this example our tape shows a null (- - -) value for the 'Medium' info, which means it is using the UNKNOWN media type and probably a 'Media type' is not yet assigned to that tape, hence why the Medium, Capacity, and Remaining values shows 0 GiB, for the status of that tape. This does not mean that there is no data stored on the tape, as if the media type is not assigned to a tape then the details of the tape won't be displayed properly as far as the capacity of the tape even. Also, if DataCenter did not write data to the tape then it won't display properly here either. If you did have a media type assigned to the tape and DataCenter did write backups to the tape it is likely that the 'hiscsi -info' command should show accurate results for those statistics in the output of the info command.
After you have loaded a tape that you want to erase into one of the tape drive(s) in the library you will run the 'hiscsi -stat' command on the library / changer device one more time to verify that the tape(s) have loaded into a tape drive in the tape changer device (the ID is the changer device ID that you recorded earlier for the Changer):
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -stat A01B00S00L01
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI1:
Open device \\.\SCSI1:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A01B00S00L01 N Changer? IBM 03584L22
\\.\SCSI1: with (1) devices
Type No El# Stat Tag Info
Drive 1 257 full 000003L7 A01B00S00L00 Src=1027
Drive 2 258 full 000002L7 A02B00S00L00 Src=1025
Trans 1 1 empty -----
Trans 2 2 empty -----
Im/Ex 1 1021 empty -----
Im/Ex 2 1022 empty -----
Im/Ex 3 1023 empty -----
Slot 1 1025 empty -----
Slot 2 1026 empty -----
Slot 3 1027 empty -----
Slot 4 1028 empty -----
Slot 5 1029 empty -----
Slot 6 1030 empty -----
Slot 7 1031 empty -----
Slot 8 1032 empty -----
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>
In the above output it shows that we have the 000003L7 (barcode label) tape loaded in to the first tape drive 'Tape 1', and we also have 000002L7 (barcode label) tape loaded into the second tape drive 'Tape 2', and we can now erase those two tapes that are loaded into both of those drives. If you only have a single tape drive in your library then you will just have to repeat loading and unloading the tapes from the first tape drive 'Tape 1' in that case, and then erase.
Notice this time now that we have used our tape autoloader / changer management web interface / software to load a tape in to the tape drives then you can now issue the erase command below to erase the tape(s) contents (the method of erase that the 'hiscsi -erase' command utilizes is a quick erase, so it should take less than one minute to complete):
Here we issue the first erase command to erase the contents of the tape that is inserted in the first tape drive 'Tape 1' (A1B0S0L0):
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -erase A01B00S00L01 (or you can use the short format A1B0S0L0). You could also erase a tape by using the tape tag ID (this is the tape barcode label ID) in the parameter, so for this exact example that would be hiscsi -erase 000003L7.
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI1:
Open device \\.\SCSI1:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A01B00S00L00 Y Tape1 IBM 0359260F
\\.\SCSI1: with (1) devices
Tapedrive - - -
Position : get move
Filemarks : move write
Position : reverse rewind
Medium - - -
Capacity : 0 GiB
Remaining : 0 GiB
Blocksize : 0 Kib
Status : RW
Erase using FMK
Success!
Here we issue the second erase command to erase the contents of the tape that is inserted into the second tape drive 'Tape 2' (A2B0S0L0):
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>hiscsi -erase A02B00S00L00 (or you can use the short format A2B0S0L0). You can also erase a tape by using the tape tag ID (this is the tape barcode label ID) in the parameter, so for this exact example that would be hiscsi -erase 000002L7.
HISCSI SCSI-bus tool (C) 1990-2018 NovaStor GmbH
using device \\.\SCSI4:
Open device \\.\SCSI4:
Name C Device Vendor Product
------------ - -------- ---------- ------------
A04B00S00L00 Y Tape0 IBM 0359260F
\\.\SCSI4: with (1) devices
Tapedrive - - -
Position : get move
Filemarks : move write
Position : reverse rewind
Medium - - -
Capacity : 0 GiB
Remaining : 0 GiB
Blocksize : 0 Kib
Status : RW
Erase using FMK
Success!
C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape>
END.
You are done erasing the contents of the tapes physically. At this point you can move the inserted tape(s) that were erased that are still in the tape drive(s) back to an available slot in the library by using the DataCenter GUI in Tape Library Management > Library > inside the Drives area, by right-clicking the tape in the tape drive and then do 'Move to empty library slot', or you can use your tape library manufacturer's own web management admin interface to unload the tape in the drive back to the library, or you could use the hiscsi command to perform the eject tape from drive command: 'hiscsi -eject [AxBxSxLx] [or TapeX]', eject tape from drive. You will see that once a tape that was erased with the prior method is placed back into an available slot in the library, that the data values for that tape look the same as prior, so it may show it has 2TB written to it, and 5 backups, that the backups on it are 65 days in age, etc. This is because the 'hiscsi -erase' command only erased the contents of the tape and did not touch any of the database values that DataCenter had stored in flat files and has read back again about this tape to show those old details. Note: If the tapes that you just finished erasing had ever been utilized by DataCenter as far as being written to prior then take note that the 'hiscsi erase' command does NOT reset the information about that tape in DataCenter, such as how much data has been written to the tape, how many backups exist on it, age, etc. What that means is that in order for it to be seen as a brand new tape to utilize for new backups to write to it, you would need to do a few additional things at that point to make it be seen as a new tape (with no records of anything on it) and then get it assigned to a scratch pool. In order to assign the tapes you erased back to DataCenter for use in a scratch pool for instance, to be usable to write to for any backup jobs, it will require editing 2-3 flat text files which hold the values of what is on those tapes that are in the library that you just erased, as the 'hiscsi -erase' command does NOT do that for you to clear the old info values regarding the tape details which the DataCenter software "sees" the tape as containing, it only performs a physical erase of the contents of the tape (a quick erase). It is up to you to remove those tapes from the flat text files at this point now if you want to use them as "new" tapes in DataCenter, as null value tapes, so that backup jobs are able to write to them and start from scratch as far as the details of that tape that was just erased. Continue to the next step to see how to get those tapes that you did erase seen as "new" tapes in DataCenter so that values for the tape are cleared (reset to null values) and to place the tape back into a scratch pool, so that new backups can write to that tape and it starts from scratch.
Remember you need to do this from the computer that has the tape library device attached directly to it.
Instructions for if you want a tape that you just erased to be available for use in a Scratch Pool; using the GUI to assign that tape to a scratch pool:
Alternative instructions in case after deleting the tape that was erased from the two .tab files and you would prefer to use the DataCenter GUI to assign a tape that was just erased to a particular scratch pool which will first requiring to set the media type, as that tape will be complete unknown to DataCenter using this method but will still be seen as a tape that is inserted in the library (with UNKNOWN details of it, including the media type not being set, if you go with this method it will be as if a brand new tape was inserted into an available slot in the library and the library is then refreshed via the GUI, that tape will be seen but DataCenter will have no details other than it will know about the barcode label that is on that tape). The steps are all here.
On the machine that has the tape changer (library) / autoloader device attached to it, navigate using Explorer to: 'C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\mm\' folder.
You will see these files that contain the .tab file extension:
MEDIUM.tab
MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab
OFFLINE_SCRATCH.tab
POOL_BACKUPSERVER.tab
POOL_MEDIUM.tab
POOL_SCRATCH.tab
Edit the MEDIUM.tab file using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++.
It will have contents that look similar to this:
000007L7,LTO6,39,2019-10-26,eot,Y,6838214784,70,66,2018-11-26
000008L7,LTO6,10,2019-08-21,app,Y,1244342320,32,28,2018-11-26
000009L7,LTO6,39,2019-08-20,eot,Y,4695681696,54,52,2018-11-26
000010L7,LTO6,29,2019-10-01,eot,Y,3773881680,44,40,2018-11-26
000015L7,LTO6,39,2019-10-03,app,Y,6540149440,49,48,2018-11-26
000017L7,LTO6,732,2019-10-28,app,Y,2598421680,110,109,2018-11-26
000018L7,LTO6,31,2019-08-19,eot,Y,2717833648,59,58,2018-11-26
000020L7,LTO6,54,2019-08-21,app,Y,74571440,21,19,2018-11-26
CLNU00L1,CLEANING,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0312L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0313L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0314L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
KR0613L6,LTO6,4,2019-08-28,app,Y,19395424,8,2,2018-11-26
KR0616L6,LTO6,4,2019-06-20,app,Y,95747952,2,1,2018-11-26
KR0618L6,LTO6,1,2019-08-22,app,Y,32550320,5,3,2018-11-26
000011L7,LTO6,23,2019-04-01,app,Y,718828912,27,20,2019-01-29
000016L7,LTO6,7,2019-10-26,app,Y,1168526400,80,78,2019-01-29
000013L7,LTO6,4,2019-08-02,app,Y,222226208,1,1,2019-07-01
000012L7,LTO6,1107,2019-09-30,eot,Y,2641171728,49,49,2019-08-19
000019L7,LTO6,27,2019-10-01,app,Y,878372464,2,2,2019-08-19
Delete the entire line of text to do with the tape that was just erased, as a line item. In the above example we are deleting the entire line of text that contains:
"000020L7,LTO6,54,2019-08-21,app,Y,74571440,21,19,2018-11-26"
Save the 'MEDIUM.tab' file.
Edit the MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++. An example of the contents is shown here:
CLNU00L1,DellLTO
FF0312L7,DellLTO
FF0313L7,DellLTO
FF0314L7,DellLTO
KR0613L6,DellLTO
KR0616L6,DellLTO
KR0618L6,DellLTO
000010L7,DellLTO
000017L7,DellLTO
000011L7,Offsite
000007L7,DellLTO
000013L7,Offsite
000018L7,DellLTO
000008L7,DellLTO
000009L7,DellLTO
000020L7,DellLTO
000016L7,DellLTO
000015L7,Offsite
Delete the entire line of text which has to do with the one tape that was erased, in this case it was tape '000020L7', so remove that entire line of text.
Save the 'MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab' file.
Edit the POOL_MEDIUM.tab using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++. In our example our file looks like this:
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0312L7,0
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0313L7,0
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0314L7,0
Arch.0001@ag-tapeserver,000011L7,1
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0616L6,0
Arch.0001@ag-tapeserver,000013L7,2
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000020L7,13
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0618L6,0
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0613L6,0
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000019L7,14
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000015L7,13
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000017L7,15
Scratch,000018L7,0
Scratch,000009L7,0
Scratch,000008L7,0
Scratch,000010L7,0
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000007L7,14
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000016L7,15
Delete the entire line of text which has to do with the one tape that was erased, in this case it was tape '000020L7', so remove that entire line of text.
Save the 'POOL_MEDIUM.tab' file.
Note, before continuing make sure that all of the .tab files that you edited above were actually saved, and the timestamp on the files displays the current date and time.
Now load DataCenter GUI and go to the 'Tape Library Management > Library' screen, in the 'Library Slots' area, refresh the panel contents by right-clicking in the blank white space and do "Refresh". The Volume State column should show "UNKNOWN" now for that tape that you erased and edited the above flat text files for. If that does not work you can try to refresh all active panels with the button at the top left of DataCenter toolbar, or restart the machine in question or restart just the DataCenter services and log back in to DataCenter GUI and go to 'Tape Library Management > Library' screen and refresh that view and look for the tape you erased to see if "Volume state" column shows "UNKNOWN" now. At this point you will be required to set the media type for that tape, as at this point the software does not know if that tape is an LTO5, LTO7, or LTO8, etc. In the 'Library Slots' area right-click on the slot where that tape exists and choose 'Edit media type', then set the media type to the proper type such as 'LTO8'. Next you will have to assign that tape to a Scratch pool, which would need to be created prior to do this; normally you would only have one Scratch pool in place per tape library. Right-click on that same tape and choose 'Add to scratch pool' and then pick the scratch pool in that list to assign it.
Now that the tape is assigned to a Scratch pool you should see that if you go to 'Tape Library Management > Scratch pool' screen or in the Dashboard where it shows your Scratch Pool status.
END.
Alternate instructions for if you want a tape that you just erased to be available for use in a Scratch Pool; by manually assigning that tape to a scratch pool using only notepad:
In order for DataCenter to realize that these tapes are empty and available for use in your Scratch Pool, you will have to do a bit more work. On the machine that has the tape changer (library) / autoloader device attached to it, navigate using Explorer to: 'C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\mm\' folder.
You will see these files that contain the .tab file extension:
MEDIUM.tab
MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab
OFFLINE_SCRATCH.tab
POOL_BACKUPSERVER.tab
POOL_MEDIUM.tab
POOL_SCRATCH.tab
Edit the MEDIUM.tab file using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++.
It will have contents that look similar to this:
000007L7,LTO6,39,2019-10-26,eot,Y,6838214784,70,66,2018-11-26
000008L7,LTO6,10,2019-08-21,app,Y,1244342320,32,28,2018-11-26
000009L7,LTO6,39,2019-08-20,eot,Y,4695681696,54,52,2018-11-26
000010L7,LTO6,29,2019-10-01,eot,Y,3773881680,44,40,2018-11-26
000015L7,LTO6,39,2019-10-03,app,Y,6540149440,49,48,2018-11-26
000017L7,LTO6,732,2019-10-28,app,Y,2598421680,110,109,2018-11-26
000018L7,LTO6,31,2019-08-19,eot,Y,2717833648,59,58,2018-11-26
000020L7,LTO6,,,,,,,,
CLNU00L1,CLEANING,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0312L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0313L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
FF0314L7,LTO7,0,,,Y,0,0,0,2018-11-26
KR0613L6,LTO6,4,2019-08-28,app,Y,19395424,8,2,2018-11-26
KR0616L6,LTO6,4,2019-06-20,app,Y,95747952,2,1,2018-11-26
KR0618L6,LTO6,1,2019-08-22,app,Y,32550320,5,3,2018-11-26
000011L7,LTO6,23,2019-04-01,app,Y,718828912,27,20,2019-01-29
000016L7,LTO6,7,2019-10-26,app,Y,1168526400,80,78,2019-01-29
000013L7,LTO6,4,2019-08-02,app,Y,222226208,1,1,2019-07-01
000012L7,LTO6,1107,2019-09-30,eot,Y,2641171728,49,49,2019-08-19
000019L7,LTO6,27,2019-10-01,app,Y,878372464,2,2,2019-08-19
Delete the extra info details regarding the tape that you just erased, that exists as extra info to the right of the media type. In our example we deleted all of the data to the right of the line of text that contains that tape name/tag ID (barcode label), and to the right of that we leave the media type in place, and we leave all of the comma characters in place to the right of that, in that case there are 8 commas that need to be left in place, the final edit would be this:
"000020L7,LTO6,,,,,,,,"
In this way the extra details stored for that tape are removed, only leaving the name/tag ID (barcode label) and media type value in place for that tape.
Save the MEDIUM.tab file.
Edit the MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++. An example of the contents is shown here:
CLNU00L1,DellLTO
FF0312L7,DellLTO
FF0313L7,DellLTO
FF0314L7,DellLTO
KR0613L6,DellLTO
KR0616L6,DellLTO
KR0618L6,DellLTO
000010L7,DellLTO
000017L7,DellLTO
000011L7,Offsite
000007L7,DellLTO
000013L7,Offsite
000018L7,DellLTO
000008L7,DellLTO
000009L7,DellLTO
000020L7,DellLTO
000016L7,DellLTO
000015L7,Offsite
In our case we erased the tape for tape '000020L7' so we are just going to verify that the entry still exists as that tape 000020L7 and that the tape drive is where the tape is assigned to, and is not marked as "Offsite" for the location, so in our case it shows "DellLTO" for the location, which appears after the comma in the text string for each tape. We don't have to do anything with this file as it is already proper. In your case you may need to change from 'Offsite' to your library name so you should be able to copy that portion of the line of text from another example in your own MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab file to make it show the tape library name and not 'Offsite'. In our example we don't need to save anything.
Save the MEDIUM_LOCATION.tab file if needed.
Edit the POOL_MEDIUM.tab using Notepad (executed with run as admin) or Notepad++. In our example our file looks like this:
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0312L7,0
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0313L7,0
ScratchLTO7Shrt,FF0314L7,0
Arch.0001@ag-tapeserver,000011L7,1
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0616L6,0
Arch.0001@ag-tapeserver,000013L7,2
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000020L7,13
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0618L6,0
ScratchLTO6Shrt,KR0613L6,0
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000019L7,14
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000015L7,13
File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000017L7,15
Scratch,000018L7,0
Scratch,000009L7,0
Scratch,000008L7,0
Scratch,000010L7,0
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000007L7,14
Vmtp.0090@ag-tapeserver,000016L7,15
Based on the tape you erased in the first step, if we want to place that tape you erased into the scratch pool as an available scratch tape, you will need to look for that tape volume identifier, in our case that was 000020L7, when we search for that tape we find one result. We can see that this tape shows as being assigned to a particular media pool, in this case the "File.0090" media pool. We will be editing that existing line of text that matches that tape identifier so that it is converted to a scratch tape. In this case we replace the media pool name at the start with "Scratch", and the "13" at the end gets replaced with "0". So, our prior example shown entry "File.0090@ag-tapeserver,000020L7,13" would be edited as:
Scratch,000020L7,0
So if we were to look at the contents of POOL_MEDIUM.tab file now it would read as:
..
Scratch,000020L7,0
Scratch,000018L7,0
Scratch,000009L7,0
Scratch,000008L7,0
Scratch,000010L7,0
..
The "Scratch,000020L7,0" line of text will match the look of our other scratch pool assigned tapes that were already existing entries near the bottom of the file.
Save the POOL_MEDIUM.tab file.
Note, before continuing make sure that all of the .tab files that you edited above were actually saved, and the timestamp on the files displays the current date and time.
Now load DataCenter GUI and go to the 'Tape Library Management > Library' screen, in the 'Library Slots' area, refresh the panel contents by right-clicking in the blank white space and do "Refresh". In the 'Library Slots' area the 'Media type' column for the tape you just dealt with should be displayed how you had left it in the MEDIUM.tab file; in our example the media type was left at 'LTO6' in that file. If it is not set properly for the tape then you can do one of two things at that point, you can verify that you edited the tape values in MEDIUM.tab file correctly, so in the example the line of text in that file was edited and left as "000020L7,LTO6,,,,,,,,", verify that line of text is proper by editing that file again to verify it, and otherwise you can try to assign the media type via the GUI for that tape and you can do that in the 'Library Slots' area right-click on the slot where that tape in question exists and choose 'Edit media type', then set the media type to the proper type such as 'LTO8'. The 'Volume State' column should show "Scratch" now for that tape that you erased and edited the above flat text files for. If it does not then attempt to refresh all active panels and then switch to a different area of the Tape library Management, such as "Scratch pools" screen, then fresh that screen and then go back to "Library" screen and refresh again and see if the tape you erased shows in the Volume state column as "Scratch". If that does not work you can try to refresh all active panels with the button at the top left of DataCenter toolbar, or restart the machine in question or restart just the DataCenter services and log back in to DataCenter GUI and go to 'Tape Library Management > Library' screen and refresh that view and look for the tape you erased to see if "Volume state" column shows "Scratch" now. Now the tape is assigned to the scratch pool and you should see that if you go to 'Tape Library Management > Scratch pool' screen or in the Dashboard where it shows your Scratch Pool status.
END.