Label B2D media

[kennyb]

We are using BE 2010 with an RD1000 external tape drive for our target media. It creates the media labels as "B2D000123" etc..

I would like to change these labels to something that matches our media set, e.g. "Tape 1", "Week 1 Inc", "Week 2 Full", etc.

Any ramifications if I change the label? Is there a way to change mutiple data files in the media set since the data files are set at 10gb max and we are backing up to 700gb per media set?

thanks.

[CraigV]

...if you change the label you destroy the data. Best to do this when the media is up for reuse. There is also no way to rename the B2D media created as this is handled exclusively by Backup Exec.

Thanks!

[Colin_Weaver]

I believe 2010 had a way to change the prefix of the Backup to Disk media - but it still has to have a way to increment a numeric value and it is still the same prefix across all devices, jobs and media set  etc so you could not make it granular to the level you ask about.

That said after BE 2010 you can't even do that as we handle all the disk based file (and folder names) as part of DLM - which kind of means best practice is to leave it alone as if you upgrade to a newer version you will have to use B2Dnnnnnn.bkf

As an aside, why do you need to rename them - if it is because you then move or copy these files around outside of Backup Exec then be very careful and take time to understand this:

http://www.veritas.com/docs/000015327

[kennyb]

I would like to rename the prefix just to be able to keep track of what tape we are using since we rotate every week for four weeks. Our BE device is located offsite and we have a user that manages the tapes down at that location so we'd like to be on the same page if we loose track between the media library and the tapes that are physically labeled (e.g. if the tapes have a printed label for "week 1", then I'd like to be able to search in the media sets for week1000123.bkf instead of guessing that B2D000123.bkf might be week1)

It was nice to be able to do this with LTO tapes, even after a Backup was written to the media. But it seems B2D tapes label it differently because B2D split the file size limits.

thanks.

[Colin_Weaver]

OK so you still cannot do it as if you set the Prefix to Week1 instead of B2D then week2's  data wil also end up being called Week1 - basically the granularity you are after is just not there.

RDX cartridges are not tapes they are disks in a cartridge meaning the individual media are BKF files and IMG folders stored inside the cartridge itself. In the majority of environments a single RDX cartridge will end up with multiple BKF files or IMG folders stored on it (which would be the norm) We have not designed any way in to do what you want to do as you have a special/rare case where you have set you max BKF file size to larger than your daily data meaning you only get 1 BKF which you want to give an appropriate name , however we have not put any special handling for media naming in place for this.

As such you will have to give up on this concept. (Normally I would suggest submit an enhancement request for us to look at in the future, however because of DLM changes in newer versions there is no point in wasting time as it will never happen)