Tape Archive - Introduction
BDRSuite offers Tape Backup services, allowing you to archive backup data for the long term. With BDRSuite Backup Server or Offsite DR Server, all your tape operations can be conveniently managed from a single console. You have the flexibility to store your image-based backups on the tape server, ensuring secure and reliable long-term retention of your valuable data.
You can run multiple backups at a time for a media pool according to the drives configured for the pool. You can configure the maximum number of drives that can be used by a media pool.
Note: BDRSuite supports Tape Archives to both Standalone and Automated Tapes but note that parallel processing is not supported for Standalone Tape Backups.
(E.g. : If you configured a maximum 3 drives for a media pool, then 3 backups can run at the same time for this media pool as per the media availability)
When performing a tape backup with BDRSuite and you have three tape drives available and five backup jobs that need to be archived to tape, efficient utilization of the tape drives is crucial. Here’s how BDRSuite may handle this scenario:
Example Scenario:
- Tape : Automated Tape Archives
- Tape Drives: You have 3 tape drives available.
- Backup Jobs: There are 5 backup jobs that need to be processed and stored on tape.
1. Tape Drive 1: BDRSuite will use the first tape drive to start the first backup job, which we’ll call “Backup Job 1.”
2. Tape Drive 2: Simultaneously, the second tape drive is utilized to perform the second backup job, “Backup Job 2.” This parallel processing helps save time and ensures efficient use of resources.
3. Tape Drive 3: With two jobs already in progress, the third tape drive is employed to parallelly run the “Backup Job 3.”
Note: There will be a Media Locking Mechanism while parallel processing. i.e. When Drive1 locks Media1, it means that no other drives can access or use Media1 until Drive1 completes its ongoing read or write operations.
4. Rotation: After “Backup Job 1” is completed on Tape Drive 1, BDRSuite can choose to use this drive again, if available, to work on the next job in line, which is “Backup Job 4.” If in case the Backup Job 2 is complete on Tape Drive 2 before backup job 1 then Tape Drive 2 will be utilized and so on. The drive which completed the backup task with automatically eject and media for the next backup job will be loaded automatically to the available drive.
6. Completion: The rotation between available tape drives continues until all 5 backup jobs have been successfully written to tape.
By using all available tape drives efficiently, BDRSuite optimizes the tape backup process. This not only reduces backup time but also ensures that your backup jobs are efficiently archived on tape, maximizing the utilization of your backup infrastructure.
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