I recently migrated from a DPM 2012 R2 local SQL instance to DPM 2016 UR4 connecting to a separate SQL server and we backup to tape using Firestreamer.  The child server is 2016 running on a 2012 R2 parent.  I am having a repeat problem where the tape backup eventually slows to a stop, all other jobs will stop synchronising etc. and the server in general slows to a crawl.

Restarting the firestreamer service does not do anything

You can't restart any of the DPM services

RAM and CPU usage are normal, however I cannot see disk usage in Performance Monitor, the various sections are blank

Reinstalling Firestreamer works for a few days and then the issues reoccur

It happens across different disk sets.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I just stood up my first DPM server running 1801 on a VMware VM, the OS is Server 2016 and SQL 2016 is installed locally. After adding a SAN drive for short term protection, I added a DR4100 dedup appliance as a Virtual Tape Library using the instructions found in the PDF that is linked below.

http://support-public.cfm.quest.com/37814_Microsoft_DPM_-_Setting_Up_the_Dell_DR_Series_System_as_a_VTL_Backup_Target_on_Microsoft_Data_Protection_Manager.pdf

Backups to the VTL have been working perfectly until I tried to back up a 5TB folder on a Server 2012 R2 VM. I have tried to create a recovery point 3 times and each time it fails after transferring 2.04TBs of data. I have pasted the error shown in the console below and it is followed 8 hours later by a "DPM failed to write to tape because the tape is write-protected. (ID 30104 Details: The media is write protected (0x80070013))" error, not sure if this second error is related. Anybody seen this before?

Hi Guys,

A few days ago we carried out an exercise where we used a tape created on an older version of DPM 2010 to recover some data using DPM 2012 R2 SP1. The exercise has been successful. However, even after removing the tape we still see the Extenal tape tree in our recovery tab. How should we get it removed?

Thanks,

For anything related to SharePoint https://www.fiverr.com/rashu268

as we know there is limitation for DPM software that in any condition we need to each free tape to run each full backup.

so my requirement is that i need to run multiple protection group full backup job to single tape, how can we achieve this goal by any workaround?

DPM version is , SCDPM2016 U4.

Hi,

I just taken on a backup solution that uses a HP MSL2024 Tape Library, and I noticed that DPM only recognizes 23 out of the 24 slots available.

I can see the library has a mailslot, which was enabled, so I'm figuring this is what is missing in DPM. However disabling the mailslot and making it an active slot doesn't make any difference. I've also made some of the registry changes suggested in other threads.

I can live with 23 slots, but is a little annoying that we can't make use of all 24 slots.

Any suggestions welcome

Andrew

Andrew France - http://andrewsprivatecloud.wordpress.com

Hi ALL,

I’ve encountered a strange issue about DPM

The magazine of my tape library can’t be opened after finishing the backup job, and a error log will be shown “locked by the host”

I’ve tried to stop DPM service and confirmed the status of “library door” is unlocked in DPM,  but seem useless

Then the only method seem works is restarting the server, but the same error would happen next time. I just guess there are some process blocked but failed to confirm.

Any advice or solution would be appreciated ! ~lol

P.S. I use DPM 2007 SP1 v2.0.8864.0 & Dell tape library  PowerVault TL2000

Hi all, I have deployed SCDPM 2016 in windows server 2012 R2. Everything is working fine but the issue is that I cannot take the backup in tape drive storage. In device manager I can see the tape drive but Media Device is not visible. Please find the attachment herewith.

Thanks in advance.

Mandal Amit

One of my back up job failed to create Recovery Point after the disk went offline. The disk was brought back up online, restarted Volume Shadow Copy on DPM server and rerun the job but it still fails with the below error: 

I got an "Access is Denied" when i click on Volume Name: \\?\Volume{fdd8cef5-ddfe-11e6-941c-a4badb17a023}\ 

When i view the event details, it show username: NT Authority\System but we actually don't have this account set up anywhere. 

Does anybody know how to fix this issue? 

Khai

Hello,

I've been noticing that DPM 2012 R2 has sometimes been splitting a nightly backup over multiple tapes (even though it can fit on a single tape). We are using LTO-6 tapes with an HP StorageWorks MSL2024 G3 library. Normally, the backup should complete and all fit on the one tape. But as I said, sometimes it will use two or three tapes for the same protection group backup, and put ~100 GB on one tape, then decide that it needs another. This is obviously very wasteful.

Is there some was that we can tell exactly what's going on here and prevent it?

Thank you

I try to restore a single file from a tape backup few month ago. I imported the expired tapes and did a recatalog imported tapes.

When I go to Recovery->External DPM Tapes->Server->RCT\Servername I can only recover the whole server.

In newer recovery points I can douple klick on the server und browse to the file.

How can I recatalog the tapes to recover single files and folders of the server?

I have SCDPM 2016 on windows server 2012 r2

Backup on disk success

Some of protection groups protected  on disks then tape

Error* all jobs on tape library or tapes failed(inventory, erase,create recovery point )

ID 3316,ID 3308 and all refere to

(DPM could not reserve the drive resource because one of required drive resources is not online or it needs cleaning or servicing. (ID 24052))

any help,

We sometimes get the below backup to tape fails..

Monitoring - Critical Error - Backup to tape failed

Error Details: Backup of \Server\SQL\model cannot be completed, DPM could not find a valid recovery point on disk. (ID 30126) (lots of these for different servers)

Current Proceedure to fix this and rerun the tape backup:

Protection:
Select failed area (from above Error details)
Perform Consistency check
Then Create recovery Point - to disk - (can't just do this straight away it fails with - Cannot preform creation of a recovery point on a replica which is inconsistent (ID 31209)
- Oddly then after this in The Protection tab it still says "Backup to Tape Failed"

Then run Backup to tape job again..

Is this the correct way to fix this as it's a ball ache.. Could I script it, I presume so ?

All tape backups are optimized/co-located to single tape label since we are using 15TB tapes so we use them fully. 

I am getting below error for one protection group, it's direct data being written from data source to tape and no disk backup is in picture. I am not sure if this is due to tape full (but tape is not showing offsite ready) or anything else. 

Is there any way to choose different tape to pickup with co-located tape label, as of now when I am triggering tape job, it's picking same tape which is close to full. 

Thanks

Vijay 

So a few weeks ago I started trying to tie our System Center DPM (v1807 on Server 2012 R2 - upgrade is planned, but I need to get this issue fixed first, if possible) to AWS via their Virtual Tape Library. It's ... not gone well. 

Based on lessons learned, I'd figured I'd tear it all out and start over. However, after removing the ISCSI connection from my secondary DPM to the AWS virtual tape library, I'm getting the following error every day (I'd post an image, but apparently that requires "account verification"):

"Tape detailed inventory failed for the following reason: (ID 3316)

DPM could not reserve the drive resource because one of the required drive resources is not online or it needs cleaning or servicing. (ID 24052)"

The "required drive resource" is the virtual tape drive that's no long associated with the DPM server. More, I can't add it back because AWS thinks there are 3 virtual tapes still in the drive, so DPMDriveMappingTool.exe fails each time I try to add the library back. 

I'm working with Amazon on their side of this, but need to resolve these AWS tape-related errors on the DPM. I'm at a loss. Any help is appreciated.

Dear all,

I have the following issue - DPM 2016 1807 cannot restore backup from tapes. The backups were performed by the same server (not imported).

As I mentioned, backups are successful, but restore cannot be performed. The following error occurred when I've tried to restore anything from the tapes:

(l of the services, mentioned below are running.)

Hi,

We’ve been having issues setting up a Dell EMC ML3 tape library with our backup server running DPM 2019. Having been through the motions with Dell they’ve established that there’s no fault with the hardware as we can run all the tape library/tape drive operations through IBM’s ITDT tape diagnostic tool.

Additionally, it was checked that DPM is compatible with the Dell EMC ML3 tape library

With the latest nonexclusive_dpf drivers for the medium changer and tape drive installed DPM can identify the library and tape drive. However, the tape drive states that it is constantly “in use” and when running a detailed/fast inventory to find the tapes (10 tapes – in one logical library, random access partition) the DPM console crashed with an error ID: 917.

” Connection to the DPM service has been lost.

Review the application event log for information about a possible service shutdown. Verify that the following services are not disabled:

            DPM

            DPM Replication Agent

            SQLAgent$MSSQLSERVER

            MSSQL$MSSQLSERVER

            Virtual Disk Service

            Volume Shadow Copy

ID: 917 “

All of the services were checked to see if they were running. After making sure that they were I tested the inventory again, it once again crashed. In event viewer there were a number of crash logs.

“The detailed inventory of tape failed for the following reason: (ID: 3316)

Operation failed since the slot 1 in library IBM TotalStorage 3573 Tape Library-2 was empty. This tape is currently present in offline (ID: 24027)”

And

“Library drive IBM ULTRIUM 7 3580 TAPE DRIVE (1164F0605B) in IBM TotalStorage 3573 Tape Library-2 is not functioning and library jobs may fail until the drive is repaired. The drive is not functioning for the following reason:

 (ID: 3303)

Drive IBM ULTRIUM 7 3580 TAPE DRIVE (1164F0605B) was detected as not ready. (ID: 25015)”

According to the first error (24027) the way to fix this is to move a tape to the slot specified, however there is already a tape in slot 1 (slot 1-10 full of tapes).

The second error (25015) the solution for resolving the error is:

1. If the drive is being serviced, you can ignore this alert.
2. Make sure that the drive is powered on.
3. Make sure that the drive is connected properly.
4. In Device Manager, if the drive is not enabled or is not visible, refer to your hardware manual for other troubleshooting steps.

All of these do not apply as the drive is not being serviced, is powered on and correctly connected and within device manager both the medium changer and tape drive are visible in device manger and there are no errors with the drivers.

Changing the Dell supplied drivers to alternate versions i.e. exclusive, exclusive_dpf, exclusive_no_dpf, nonexclusive and nonexclusive_no_dpf we end up with driver errors (37) and can only identify the tape drive standalone. We have also used the IBM specific drivers for the Tape library and drive version. These provided no different results.

The DPM drive mapping tool has been used to ensure that the correct ISCSI addresses are being used for the library and drive after completing the remapping no changes to the behaviour of the library/drive.

Also used the DPM Library compatibility test tool running tests 1, 2, 4 and 5 all of which failed.

• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(1026)                                NORMAL             CMDLINE: DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Changer0 /AT 1 2 4 5
• utility.cpp(274)                             WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070424] QueryServiceStatus failed
• utility.cpp(350)                             WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070424] GetServiceStatus for NtmsSvc service failed, ignoring the failure
• utility.cpp(267)                             WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070424] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : (HANDLE)(schService = OpenServiceW( schSCManager, strServiceName.PeekStr(), 0x0004))
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(990)                                  NORMAL           By default only RSM_COMPAT_INIT_ELEMENT_STATUS - RSM Compat mode is enabled
• utility.cpp(196)                             WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070002] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(2)
• cfgclass.cpp(1104)         [0000000001650820]                   NORMAL             We got 1  devices for class 0
• cfgclass.cpp(176)           [00000000031210E8]                   NORMAL             Initializing Device with path \\?\scsi#sequential&ven_ibm&prod_ult3580-td7#5&3158837b&0&000000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
• system.cpp(1183)                                       WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070002] Failed to initialize IOCTL timeout from registry. Initializing with default timeout [900000 ms].
• system.cpp(1168)                                       WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80070002] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : r.GetValue(L"LibraryIoctlTimeout", &s_dwIoctlTimeoutInMs)
• cfgclass.cpp(1104)         [0000000003121890]                   NORMAL             We got 1  devices for class 1
• cfgclass.cpp(176)           [0000000003121938]                   NORMAL             Initializing Device with path \\?\scsi#changer&ven_ibm&prod_3573-tl#5&3158837b&0&000001#{53f56310-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}
• cfgnudev.cpp(984)         [0000000000BFF1B8]                   NORMAL             Found a Tape Drive with Serial Number match
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1528)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Found a device with following details
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1529)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Name        : \\.\Changer0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1530)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Serialnumber : 55L3A7800RBNLL01
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1531)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Vendor Name : IBM Corporation
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1532)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Product Name : IBM TotalStorage 3573 Tape Library
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1533)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     FirmWare Revision  : 1300
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1535)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device SCSI Props  : (P,B,T,L)5,0,0,1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1543)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Driver Name  : ibmcg2k19
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1567)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Driver Version  : 6.2.6.8x64 built by: WinDDK
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1528)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Found a device with following details
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1529)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Name        : \\.\Tape0
  
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1530)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Serialnumber : 1164F0605B
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1531)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Vendor Name : IBM Corporation
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1532)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device Product Name : IBM ULTRIUM 7 3580 TAPE DRIVE
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1533)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     FirmWare Revision  : J4D0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1535)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Device SCSI Props  : (P,B,T,L)5,0,0,0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1543)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Driver Name  : ibmtp2k19
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1567)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL                     Driver Version  : 6.2.6.8x64 built by: WinDDK
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1085)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Rescan Operation completed with hr - 0x0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1479)                                     NORMAL             Opening handle for device \\.\Changer0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1492)                                     NORMAL           Open Handle Operation completed with hr - 0x0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(854)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Doing Fast Inventory
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(857)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_PARAMETERS
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(870)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Library information Number of Slots - 35, Number of Drives  - 1, Number of I/E ports – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(883)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Doing Slot Inventory
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1614)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling InitializeElementStatus for element type - 2, first element - 0, Number of elements
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1640)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           InitializeElementStatus Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 0, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 5, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 10, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 15, Number of elements - 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 20, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 25, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 2, first element - 30, Number of elements – 5
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1797)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Get Element Status Operation completed with hr - 0x0
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(891)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Doing I/E port Inventory
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1614)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling InitializeElementStatus for element type - 3, first element - 0, Number of elements
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1640)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           InitializeElementStatus Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 3, first element - 0, Number of elements – 1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 3, first element - 1, Number of elements – 1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 3, first element - 2, Number of elements – 1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 3, first element - 3, Number of elements – 1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1659)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Calling IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS for element type - 3, first element - 4, Number of elements – 1
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1673)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           IOCTL_CHANGER_GET_ELEMENT_STATUS Succeeded
• lacommonlib.cpp(167)                              NORMAL           Element Type 3, Element Number 4 is in Exceptional State
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1797)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Get Element Status Operation completed with hr - 0x33e7210
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(950)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  NORMAL           Fast Inventory Operation completed with hr - 0x33e7210
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(788)                                  NORMAL             Result: 0 tests completed successfully, 5 failed
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(794)                                  NORMAL           Would you like to submit error report? [Y/N :Default(Y)]:
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(806)                                  NORMAL             Submitted the error report successfully
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(1085)                                NORMAL             Operation Failed....
• utility.cpp(706)                             NORMAL           Error Code: 0x80990c1b
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(1087)                                NORMAL             VERBOSE INFORMATION FILE:
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(1087)                                NORMALC:\...\DPMLibraryTest\LibraryTestTool-27-Curr.errlog
• lacommonlib.cpp(406)                              WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Unhandled error : Fast inventory is going to FAIL: lVal : E_LIBRARYAGENT_INVENTORY_EXCEPTION
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(1708)        [0000000000BFF1B0]                  WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : CLACommonLib::UpdateStateFromFastInventory(0, ioctlParams, arrMedia, arrAbsentSlots, arrOpenIEPorts, arrUnusableSlots, arrUnusableDrives, &numMedia, &numAbsentSlots, &numOpenIEPorts, &numUnusableSlots,&numUnusableDrives, m_pErrorAndCancelHelper, false)
• dpmdevicelayer.cpp(921)          [0000000000BFF1B0]                  WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : GetElementStatus(hDevice, sourceElementType, dwFirstElementNumber, dwNumberOfElemetsPerCall, dwNumberOfElemets, (pLibParams->Features0 & 0x00000001) ? true : false, pStatus, *ppFIResponse)
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(582)                                  WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : deviceLayer.DPMFastInventory( hChangerDevice,&pLibParams,&pFIResponse)
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(907)                                  WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : ExecuteLibraryTest(ssDeviceName, false, dwNumberOfTestCase, arrTestCase)
• dpmlibrarytesttool.cpp(1043)                                WARNING          Failed: Hr: = [0x80990c1b] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : LibraryTestMode(argc-2, wszArgv+2)

We are running Win Server 2019, DPM 2019 and SQL 2017 with the latest updates.

If anyone has seen this before or has any possible solutions it would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Everyone,

I lost my tape barcode for a particular PG.

Whereas i am having the Tape Label name. Will i be able to get the respective Tape Barcode of the Tape Label.

Good morning all,

I'm new to DPM and could use some advice on how to best utilize tape backups with DPM for short-term and long-term/offsite backups.

The total size of the data I'm backing up is about 13TB.  I'm using LTO4 tapes, which takes about 17 to do a complete full backup.  I have 80 tapes that I can use.  The data I am backing up does not change very often, however, when there is a change, I want to capture it in my backups as soon as possible.

My thought is to do short-term incremental backups over the course of two weeks up to a month, if possible.  Ideally at that point, instead of doing a second full backup as an offsite copy, I'd like to find a way that the system will just flag those short-term incremental backups as an offsite backup, and then prompt for new tapes to be put in to start the process over again.  Also, by the time I'm putting backups on tapes 78, 79 or 80, the backup on tape 1, 2 or 3 is expired so I can rotate it back in and re-use it.

What I had been doing was not doing any short-term backups, but instead just doing long-term backups every two weeks, whether any new data was being backed up or not, and then I would put in a bunch of new tapes and do it again two weeks later.  However, I did not have my retention settings set right, so I would run out of usable tapes and therefore could not do any further backups.

Could someone please give me some advice on how I should set up this protection group to meet the goals listed above?