If Veeam Backup & Replication tries to load an LTO-9 tape that hasn’t been initialized or has an unknown status in the library, the library will not display any media on the Veeam backup server.
According to the user guides for the HPE MSL2024 and 1/8 G2 Autoloader, these tape libraries do not support media movement during the LTO9 initialization process.
Preventing the movement of uninitialized or unknown status LTO-9 tapes ensures that they are not accidentally loaded into the drive, helping to avoid potential timeout issues and backup delays during the LTO-9 tape initialization process.
To work around this issue, run the LTO9 New Media Initialization Wizard within the HPE MSL2024 or 1/8 G2 Autoloader before using the new LTO9 tape with Veeam Backup & Replication. This workaround has been confirmed by HPE.
Step 1: Ensure the Correct Drivers Are Installed
Before starting the media initialization process, you need to verify that the correct drivers for your tape library are installed on the backup server.
- Open the HPE StoreEver Tape Drivers for Windows application.
- Check if the required drivers are listed:
- If an Upgrade Available status is shown, install the latest version by selecting the drivers and clicking Install.
- Once installed, confirm that the correct versions are displayed.
Open a web browser and enter the IP address of the HPE StoreEver MSL3040 tape library
- After logging in, you will see the main dashboard of the HPE StoreEver MSL3040.
- Click on the Maintenance button to access system maintenance tasks.
- Click Start LTO-9 New Media Initialization Wizard.
- A list of available LTO-9 cartridges will be displayed.
- Select the cartridge(s) you want to initialize and click the right arrow.
- If you need to initialize all cartridges, click Select All, then click the right arrow.
- The selected cartridges will move to the Selected Cartridges section.
- Click Next.
- Choose the tape drives to be used for initializing the media.
- Click the right arrow to move the selected drives to the Selected Drives section.
- If all drives should be used, click Select All, then click the right arrow.
- Click Next.
- Click Finish to begin the media initialization process.
- The wizard screen will display the progress of the initialization.
- If you click Exit, the wizard will close, but the initialization process will continue.
- You can monitor the status from the Maintenance > LTO-9 New Media Initialization Wizard page.
Since your HPE StoreEver MSL3040 tape library has no default partition, it means that Veeam cannot see any tapes yet because the library is not presenting any partitions to the backup server. You need to create a partition first before Veeam can detect the tapes.
After creating the partition, go back to Veeam server Choose “Inventory” so that Veeam recognizes them.
If you do not see the capacity or free space of the media in Veeam, it means that Veeam recognizes the media but does not have detailed information about the contents. In this case, you need to catalog the media.
Once your tapes are visible in Veeam and their capacity and free space are displayed, you can proceed to create media pools. Media pools help organize and manage tapes for backup and retention policies.
After creating the media pools, you can now configure backup to tape jobs in Veeam. Ensure that the correct media pools is selected when setting up your backup jobs.
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