About labeling NetBackup volumes

When NetBackup labels a volume, it writes a record on the magnetic tape of the volume; the record (or label) includes the NetBackup media ID.

Normally, NetBackup controls the labeling of its volumes. In most cases, NetBackup labels a volume the first time it is used for a backup.

The volume label depends on whether or not the media has a bar code, as follows:

If the robot supports bar codes and the media has bar codes, NetBackup uses the last six characters of the bar code for the media ID.

To change this default action, specify and select specific characters by using Media ID generation rules.

See Configuring media ID generation rules.
For volumes without bar codes, by default NetBackup uses a prefix of the letter A when it assigns a media ID to a volume (for example, A00001).

To change the default prefix, use the MEDIA_ID_PREFIX configuration option in the vm.conf file.

See the NetBackup Administrator's Guide for Windows, Volume II.

Media are not labeled automatically in the following situations:

They were last used for NetBackup catalog backups.

Do not label catalog backup volumes unless they are no longer used for catalog backups.
They contain data from a recognized non-NetBackup application and NetBackup is configured to prohibit media overwrite for that media type.

To label these media, the following must be true: