Adding & Managing Tape Infrastructure
Select the Tape Archives tab and click the Tape Infrastructure option. To administrate Tape Backup and restore procedures, you must add the tape server from the BDRSuite Backup Server Web-Console. Adding a tape server to the backup infrastructure makes data transfer possible between backup repositories and the tape server.
Adding Tape Server
- Click Add Tape Server button and enter the tape server credentials in the pop-up window that appears:
- Hostname/IP Address
- Add credential using the Add Credentials or if you have previously added the credentials, select it from the select credentials drop-down list.
- The port number is set to 32009 by default.
- Once all the details are provided, click the Save button.
Note: BDRSuite Tape Backup does not support sharing tape devices with third-party tape-recording software.
- Once a tape server is added, BDRSuite recognizes the number of slots, drives, and media in it. Tape infrastructure displays the list of drives and slots available under the added tape server.
- Expand the tape server in the left pane to view the tape server details such as – Name, User Name, Build number, and the Version of BDRSuite client installed in the tape server.
- Enable the check-box alongside the tape server and choose the respective action to:
- Edit, Remove, Inventory, or Rescan the tape server.
Edit Tape Server: This option allows you to edit the login credentials of the tape server(if modified).
Remove Tape Server: This option removes the selected tape server from the BDRSuite tape infrastructure.
Inventory: When a new tape server or media is added to BDRSuite tape infrastructure it will be considered Unrecognized. Run the Inventory job for that tape server or media so that it is identified.
It is mandatory to perform inventory when a new tape server is added to scan the capacity, free space, and state of media available in a tape server. Once you are done performing inventory action, proceed to create media pools and perform backup configuration.
Rescan: This option is used to rescan the entire tape server to identify newly added media which further requires inventory to be performed before use.
Note: You cannot remove a tape server when a backup or restore is in progress with respect to the tape server.
Edit Tape server
Expand the tape server node in the left pane to view the list of the tape libraries available.
Enable the check-box alongside a specific library and choose the respective action to:
Rename, Inventory, or Rescan a specific library
Inventorying and Rescanning a library performs respective actions with respect to the chosen library.
Expand the library node in the left pane to view the list of available drives and media.
Drives
This section lists the available drives with the following details:
- Name – defines the name of the drive.
- Manufacturer – Name of the drive manufacturer
- State – defines the state of the drive, either online or offline which means the drive is enabled or disabled respectively
- Loaded Media – Shows the name of the media tape when loaded in it.
Note: Using BDRSuite Backup Server and Offsite DR Server you can access only one drive at a time for any ongoing operation, parallel processing is not supported.
To eject a specific drive from the list of available drives, select the check-box near the respective drive and click the Eject option. The drive will be ejected from the library.
Media
This section lists the available media with the following details such as:
- Name – Name of media.
- Location – Slot in which the media is located.
- Expires in – the life expectancy of media
- Media Pool – media pool under which the media is categorized
- Capacity – total size of media
- Free space – available storage in media
- State – defines the state of media – online or offline
Enable the check-box alongside a specific media and choose respective action to:
inventory, eject, erase, remove or mark a specific media as free.
Inventory: Perform inventory job for selected media.
Eject: Eject the chosen media.
Remove: Removes media from the media list and once rescanned it will be listed under unrecognized media.
Mark as Free: Removes the media from the existing media pool and mark it as free.
Erase: This option allows you to erase the media, providing two methods: short erase and long erase.
Short erase: wipes the tape header and it’s a quick process.
Long erase: instructs the drive to physically do an erase of the entire media. This process is time-consuming and may take minutes to hours to complete.
Note: Short erase is not supported by some tape devices.
Media Pool
Standalone Tapes
A stand alone drive is a unit that can only hold one tape at a time, so if the tape is filled up we have to change the tape manually. Since there is no robotic arm (Changer) to move media, we have to move the media to and from drive manually.
Since the standalone unit is equipped with a single tape drive, it allows to conduct read and write operations on only one tape media at a time.
Automated Tapes
An Automated tape library is the one which has drives, slot and a medium changer inbuilt.
Expand the Media Pool in the left pane which categorizes the list of available tape media into two different groups by default:
Unrecognized: When a tape server is added newly or when a new tape media is added, it will be listed in the unrecognized category by default. You should perform an inventory job to use the media for backups.
Free: Media listed under the unrecognized category will be moved to the free section, once the inventory job is performed. These tape media can further be added to any user-defined media pool and can be used as backup storage.
Create Media Pool
You can combine ‘n‘ number of tape media to create a media pool of your choice. Such media pools can be further used to store specific backup jobs.
Click the Add Media Pool and a pop-up window with a list of available tape media under the tape library will be displayed.
Configure Media(s)
Choose the desired set of tape media to couple together for media pooling and proceed with Next.
Media Pool Name: Provide a name for the media pool to be created and proceed with Next.
Retention : You can choose the retention option for the tapes in this media pool and you have three different otions to choose from which are as follows;
- Overwrite Data Cyclically
- Overwrite Data after
- Do not Overwrite Data
Review: Review the chosen configuration and click Add to create Media Pool.
You can view the configured media pool listed under the ‘Media Pool’ section in the left pane.
Enable the check-box alongside a media pool and choose respective action to:
Edit or remove the Media Pool.
Edit Media Pool: Add tape media to the existing media pool.
Remove Media Pool: Deletes the chosen media pool. Once a media pool is removed, the tape media group under it will be marked as free and can be pooled with any other media pool.
Select any user-defined Media Pool in the left pane to view the list of tape media added under it.
Enable the check-box alongside a tape media and choose respective action to:
Inventory, Erase, Mark as Free, Eject, Remove or Move the tape media to another user-defined pool.
Inventory: Perform inventory for the selected tape media to update the capacity and free space (If used by any third party to write data).
Mark as Free: Removes the media from the existing media pool and mark it as free.
Eject: Eject the chosen media.
Remove: Removes media from the media list and once rescanned it will be listed under unrecognized media.
Move to: Move the tape media to another user-defined pool.
Erase: This option allows you to erase the media, providing two methods: short erase and long erase.
Short erase: wipes the tape header and it is a quick process.
Long erase: instructs the drive to physically erase the entire media. This process is time-consuming and might take hours to complete.
Note: Short erase is not supported by some tape devices.
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