Creating jobs to export and "auto" import tapes for offsite storage.

[agentx]

Our System & Symantec BE Version: Backup Exec 12.5 (all hotfix's up to date), MS windows server 2003 R2 standard, x64 SP2.

Storage device: Quantum Scalar i80: 20 LTO4 tapes in library rotation, 1 tape used per day for full (660GB) backup, 2 week overwrite protection on media.

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I was hoping to see if anyone had some tips on how to set up a daily job for moving a tape (after the backup is complete) to the I/O slots of the robotic tape library, and then automatically return them from the I/O slots, back into rotation after 24hrs of being written to (or exported)

Our situation is that I am supposed to take a tape off site (daily) to our safe deposit box for DR backup, and bring back the previous one. I can't always make this trip, so I end up going 2-3 times a week. What I did was create a "Vault media" job to move media to the media vault. It is scheduled daily, but I have it on hold and run it only when I know I am going off site.

Problems/Requests:

1) I have to manually run the Vault Media job every time I want to take out a tape. I would like to be able to have the tape automatically put into the I/O slot after being written to so I can just grab the tape from the I/O slot in the magazine, & wont have to log into the server& BE to run the "on hold" job.

2) If I cannot make the trip to take the tape off site, after 24 hrs after being in the I/O slot, I would like to have BE automatically take the tape that is in the I/O slot, and re-import it back into the library's rotation. In other words, always keeping 1 tape in the I/O slot ready for off site transport. And, if I am returning a tape from off site, it will automatically re-import it back to the library rotation.

Are any/either of these scenarios possible to be set up?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this request...

[pkh]

It is quite easy.

For the export - Create a policy with 1 backup template and 1 export template, and link the export template to the backup template.  After you generate the jobs, the export job will be ran after the backup job and will put the tape used by the backup job in the I/O slot.

For the import - You can schedule an import job for each day to put the tape in the I/O slot in a particular slot.  Just right-click on the slot and select import and then use the schedule section to schedule the job. Alternatively, you can use my script

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/downloads/import-tape-first-empty-slot-robotic-library

as a pre-command in a job to import the tape into any slot.  The script can also be scheduled independently using the Windows scheduler.

[agentx]

PKH,

Thanks for your reply. Our tape set uses barcodes (w/ 5 I/O slots). I noticed your comments in the link mention

"This script caters for installations which do not use barcode labels and has less disk I/O's. ".

Will this script still work for our setup?

[agentx]

Sorry,

I forgot to ask, There is an option for "Eject media after job completes". I assume this is for stand alone devices (single tape drive). If I select this, while being used on a robotic tape library, will it export the tape to the I/O slot, thus not needing the 2nd policy (export template) to run? 

Also, I don't have the option (it is grayed out) to create a "Export Media Template" (see attachment image).

Thanks.

  in the job set up.  in thein         in the

[pkh]

The script is designed for use with both barcode labels and non-barcode labels.  I am using barcode labels and it works fine.  The less disk I/O bit is in reference to another script by another user.  You can ignore this.

You would need to add the backup template to the policy first.  After that, the export template will not be greyed out and you can add it in.