Auto Loader - Best Practice

[TeeJayUu]

Hello

We have moved from a single DAT tape drive regime to using an LTO5 auto loader and I was wondering if there was a 'best practice' guide as we are having some niggles like:

1. Everytime I remove a tape it automatically goes in to scratch and I have to Import should I need to do a restore
2. Labels and descriptions keep disappearing to be replaced by the barcode
3. Every operation seems to lock the drive (I've created a job to run after the backup has completed, but would like to automatically delete the entry from the job history)

I'll admit that I am not very conversant with Backup Exec, I just want to run a daily incremental back up (slots 1-4),full weekly backup (slot 8).and an ad-hoc job every now and then (slot 7).

I've read some kb's about partitioning but other advice advocates 'well created media sets', which i'm not sure of how to do this.

Would really appreciate some guidanece on this.

Thanks

Tony

[Colin_Weaver]

If you want to fix certain jobs to certain slots then you have to partition, but that will mean the job will fail if not enough usable media are present in the partition.

if you are using Barcodes then these have to be the Media labels as well this is how BE works. Media Labales that are manually set are only applicable when barcodes are not used.

You may be able to tweak the description handling using the information in

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO59831

Note sure what the issue is with your point 1, but tapes shoudl stay in the mnedia sets they belong to unless you erase them or manually move them to scratch.

[pkh]

Labels and descriptions keep disappearing to be replaced by the barcode

As previously advised, the tape label will always be that of the barcode label.  This is so that the internal physical label is consistent with the external barcode label.  Do not be tempted to remove the barcode labels.  They greatly improve the efficiency of the library operation.  See my article

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/using-barcode-labels-why-and-how

You should not partition your library as it reduces the flexibility of the library.  If your partition does not have sufficient overwritable tapes, your job will fail even though there are overwritable tapes in another partition.  Just leave the tapes in the library and let BE choose the appropriate tape.  See my other article

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/must-mondays-backup-be-monday-tape

What you need to do is to create the correct media sets for your jobs.  Media sets specify the OPP and AP that you want your tapes to obey.  For example, you would create a daily media set for your incremental job and set the OPP to 1 week, so that the incremental backup tapes can be overwritten.  You may want to create a weekly media set with a longer OPP so that your weekly full backups are kept longer.  To create media sets, click on the Media tab.  You might want to familiarise yourself with the Data Management section of the the Admin Guide.

Every operation seems to lock the drive (I've created a job to run after the backup has completed, but would like to automatically delete the entry from the job history)

You can either unlock the library manually or using a scheduled job.  The latter is more efficient.  The library is locked as a precaution so that it cannot be opened when it is in use by BE.

The job history of the unlock job will automatically be purged depending on how long you have set to retain your job history.