About mounts the media and reads the tape header

The following sequence of operations explains the mount process:

The vmphyinv utility contacts the NetBackup Volume Manager, vmd, on the local host or remote host depending on where the drive is attached.
The NetBackup Volume Manager starts a process, oprd.
The vmphyinv utility communicates with oprd and sends the mount request to oprd. After oprd receives the request, it issues a mount request to ltid.
The vmphyinv utility reads the tape header to determine the recorded media ID or globally unique identifier (GUID). GUID is an identifier used by Symantec Backup Exec.

Note:

The default mount timeout is 15 minutes. Specify a different mount time by using the -mount_timeout option.

About media that is not recognized

If the media is not NetBackup media or Backup Exec media, the media is unmounted and the next media is mounted. vmphyinv does not generate a new record in the EMM database. To generate volume records for that media, use the vmupdate command.

About cleaning media

If the following conditions are all true, vmphyinv does not try to mount the media and the next media in the list is mounted:

You do not specify the vmphyinv slot range or list option.
The robot contains cleaning media.
The media type is specified as cleaning media in the volume record (such as 4mm_clean or dlt_clean).

If the robot contains cleaning media and any of the following conditions are true, vmphyinv tries to determine if the media is cleaning media:

You use the slot range or list option and the media type of volume record in the EMM database is not a cleaning media type.
You use the slot range or list option, and the EMM database does not contains a volume record that corresponds to the cleaning media.
You do not use the slot range or list option, and the EMM database does not contain a volume record that corresponds to the cleaning media.

The vmphyinv utility tries to determine if the media is cleaning media. It uses the SCSI parameters (sense keys, tape alert flags, and physical (SCSI) media types) returned by the robot. If vmphyinv cannot determine if the media is cleaning media, it tries to mount the media until the mount request times out.

Note:

NetBackup may not detect the presence of cleaning media for all drives. Some drives report the presence of cleaning media in a manner NetBackup cannot read.