GENERAL ERROR: When attempting to expire a media in Veritas NetBackup (tm) 6.0 with the bpexpdate command, the message "requested media id was not found in the EMM database" is received.

Overview:
When attempting to expire a media in NetBackup 6.0 with the bpexpdate command, the message "requested media id was not found in the EMM database" is received.

Troubleshooting:
If there are database inconsistencies with a media, bpexpdate may not be able to expire it, though it lists as assigned.  

For example, if a volume is assigned, it is normally expected that it would have a associated media server name recorded in the Enterprise Media Manager (EMM) database.  This is the media server that currently "owns" the media.

If a volume is assigned, but does not have a media server listed in the EMM database, there is an inconsistency.  Therefore, bpexpdate may not work and a procedure must be followed to ensure that the media is expired.  Media in this sort of predicament may or may not have unexpired images associated with it.

Log Files:  N/A

Resolution:
The procedure for analyzing and eliminating inconsistencies for a media is as follows, using "A00001" as an example media ID:

1. Use nbemmcmd to list the media server record for the media ID.  If the Media Server: hostname appears as NONE, yet there is a value for Time Assigned:, this indicates an incomplete EMM media record.  In the output below, "A00001" is assigned, but has no associated media server.  

nbemmcmd

Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/

Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\admincmd

Command syntax example and output:

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid A00001

NBEMMCMD, Version:6.0(20050906)

=====================================================

Media GUID:      a5ea9a7a-8d50-13f4-8018-cef85f775cf7

Media ID:        A00001

Partner:         -

Media Type:      HCART

..

Barcode:         A00001

Partner Barcode: --------

Media Server:    NONE

Created:         04/27/2005 16:20

Time Assigned:   05/04/2005 04:20

..

=====================================================

Command completed successfully.

2. Determine if the media ID exists in the merge table.  If the media ID appears in this listing, then a different issue exists, do not proceed further.  Contact Veritas Technical Services for assistance with getting this media ID out of the merge table.  The following example shows no media IDs in the merge table:

nbemmcmd

Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/

Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\admincmd

Command syntax example and output:

nbemmcmd -listmedia -mergetable

The following number of records were found:0

Command completed successfully.

3. From the same path, type " bpimmedia -mediaid A00001 " to determine if there are any images on this piece of media.  If there are no images, then no output will be displayed.  If there are images, an IMAGE line and FRAG line will appear for each valid image on the media ID.

4. As long as the media ID does not appear in the merge table, the bptm command can be used to build a complete media record for each affected media ID.  Then the volume can then be unassigned and expired.  This will require the media ID of the affected media, as well as the density and the volume pool number. The following example is from a Solaris 9 server with a media ID of A00001, a density of HCART, that resides in Volume Pool 1 (NetBackup).

bptm

Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/

Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\

Command syntax example:

bptm -makedbentry -m A00001 -den hcart -poolnum 1

5.  Once this command completes, run the " nbemmcmd -listmedia -mediaid A00001 " command again from step 1.  There should now be a valid Media server: hostname.  

6. The tape can now be expired with the bpexpdate command:

bpexpdate

Unix: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd

Windows: <Install_dir>\NetBackup\bin\admincmd

Command syntax example and output:

bpexpdate -m A00001 -d 0  

Are you SURE you want to delete A00001 y/n (n)? y

Now that the media is expired, it can be used for backups again and will be overwritten.  If there were images found in step 2 for this media, or if it is desired to retain the data on this media, an import should be performed immediately to ensure that valuable data is not overwritten on that media.