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DELL Tape Library

Michael_Pate
Level 3
I've used Veritas for many years but with a single standalone drive. We will shortly install a DELL PowerVault 132T tape library. I would appreciate a link or document which educates or describes how to utilize a tape library with Veritas.
8 REPLIES 8

Sandesh_Bora
Level 3
Mike,

Refer to the following links :

http://support.veritas.com/docs/262055
http://support.veritas.com/docs/206843
http://support.veritas.com/docs/251466

Michael_Pate
Level 3
I appreciate the links. They show how easy it is to partition my 132T library. The area which I'm not clear is on the setup/catalog of tapes and how I will use Veritas to load/unload each week's backup tapes for offsite storage.

Keith_Langmead
Level 6
That kind of depends on how you want to use the library, and how often you plan to rotate the tapes. Have you chosen a tape library because your backup set requires multiple tapes per night, or because you want to put a load of tapes in there, leave it for a week, and then change them? If it's the latter, do you want to be able to specify which nights backup goes on which tape?

Most of the time, the easiest way to think about the library is as one big tape drive, rather than a library. For the most part, you can just put a load of tapes in the slots, point the backup job to the library, and Backup Exec / the library hardware will do the rest.

BEWS should be able to auto-detect the library without any problems, so that's not an issue (I've got the same library and it worked fine).

Just like a stand alone drive, you can still run an inventory job on the library, except now, rather than running the inventory on the tape, you run it on the entire library, which then scans all the tapes within it.

Two things to note however, 1) in order to change the tapes, you library needs to be physically unlocked, via the control buttons on the front, however, while BEWS it using it, it will lock it through software as well. While this is in place you will not be able to unlock the drawer through the menu on the box, until you have gone into BEWS, and unlocked the library from there. 2) When the library takes a tape from a slot, it MUST return it to that same slot, otherwise it get confused. If it can't return the tape to the original, it won't just put it elsewhere, instead it will generate an error, and keep hold of the tape in the drive. This isn't normally an issue, but if someone changes the tapes while the tape is in the drive, and doesn't notice there is tape missing, it can cause issues.

Hope that helps.

Michael_Pate
Level 3
Keith,

We chose the tape library because we do need multiple tapes for full backups and late in the weekly schedule for differential. We plan to utilize a GFS tape setup and have the library hold a week's worth of tapes at a time; then cycle the weekly tapes offsite so as not to have more than 1 week onsite at a time.

Its my desire to load a set of tapes and let BEWS determine which tapes to use for each nights backup. What is not clear is when we are ready to exchange a weekly set, if I have tapes which were not used during the week, how will I know which tapes to "unload/export"? Or, is it best to create a set of tapes for each week and cycle them out even if they were never used during that week?

Abhinav_Bindroo
Level 6
You may partition the library as mentioned earlier. This will allow you to target everynight's backup to a particular partion having those tapes.

Also, you can come to know which tape was utilised for the backup job, using the Job Log. In the Job Log under "Device and Media Information", you may check the "Media Label" field.


Following technote might be useful

http://support.veritas.com/docs/192265

Keith_Langmead
Level 6
Yes, I'd suggest that your best bet is to have a complete set of tapes for each week and keep them together, regardless if they have all actually been used, otherwise you risk confusion over which tapes were changed and when.

If capacity allows I'd also suggest partitioning the library up so you have the tapes for each day separated, which will then ensure that you know exactly which tapes contain data from a specific backup, and there make it easier for you to get the correct tapes in the library if you ever need to perform a restore.

The obvious risk with all this however is obviously that you are taking a very big risk if something were to happen to your office at the end of the week just before the tapes were to be changed, since you would lose not just the previous nights backup, but all the backups for the entire week. It's up to you to decide if that is an acceptable risk to you and your boss.

Ajit_Kulkarni
Level 6
Hello Mike,

I would like to know if you have tried the solution given on 22nd February by Abhinav.

Kindly Update.

Regards.


NOTE: If we do not receive your intimation within two business days, this post would be assumed answered and archived.

Sheetal_Risbood
Level 6
Archiving the post as per our previous reply