In NetBackup 6.x, the Resource Broker (nbrb) handles assignment of resources. A known bug exists, which was supposed to be fixed in 6.5.1, where media would not have this assignment released. Most times this is noticed during a restore when a particular tape is required, yet the restore details state that it is waiting on the media. To resolve this, do the following:

1. Verify NBU inventory and library inventory are synced
2. Verify NBU inventory shows tape as in library
3. Verify tape is not already mounted or stuck in a tape drive via robtest or some other method
4. If the above show the tape is in a normal, expected state, continue below; otherwise, resolve the issues above and retry the job
5. Note: running these commands will cancel any job you have running that is requesting this media; be sure to suspend/cancel them beforehand
6. Run /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbrbutil -dump | grep <mediaID>
7. If nbrb still has an open assignment for this tape, you will see quite a few lines of information, but look for the line containing “MdsAllocation“
8. Next to this will be a number so that it looks like this: MdsAllocation allocationKey=4838
9. This is the assignment that needs to be released using this command:/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbrbutil -releaseMDS 4838
10. Run the dump command again (step 6) to verify the assignment has been released from the tape
11. Resume/restart the job