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 barcode, as follows:
If the robot supports barcodes and the media has barcodes, NetBackup uses the last six characters of the barcode for the media ID.
To change this default action, specify and select specific characters by using Media ID generation rules.
For volumes without barcodes, 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. Information about the vm.conf file is available in the NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume II:
Media is 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 types, the following must be true:
NetBackup has not assigned the media
The media contains no valid NetBackup images