I have tapes in the library, and yet NetBackup isn't using any of them. I'm getting error 96s.

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The only thing I can think of off hand would be to look at your retention periods. NetBackup will not mix retention periods on a tape unless you force it (which I wouldn't recommend). If all the tapes that have space don't match the retention period you're going after, and there are no other tapes available in the storage unit, you might get the "No Available Media" message. In addition to the retention level answer above, here are some other reasons you could be having this problem:

1. volume pool mismatch i.e. the tapes in your library are all assigned to volume pool "foo", but your backup classes are configured to use tapes in volume pool "bar".

2. frozen or suspended tapes i.e. your tapes have been marked as unusable by NetBackup. The easiest way to rule this out is to run the netbackup/bin/goodies/available_media script and verify that your tapes show up as AVAILABLE or ACTIVE, as opposed to FROZEN. A tape can be unfrozen via the bpmedia command.

3. loss of scratch pool definition i.e. you normally use a scratch pool (search this FAQ if you don't know what a scratch pool is) and somehow your vm.conf file has had it's SCRATCH_POOL entry removed. You can also get an idea as to why the tapes aren't being selected or why they are being frozen or suspended by having a look at either the "All Log Entries" or Problem reports. They will usually indicate why media is not being used.