Moving Tapes to Vault

[Brian_Kim]

I want to keep copies of old tapes and use new tapes for monthly backups.
After a backup, I selected the option to MOVE TO VAULT and selected OFFLINE.

the tapes I moved show up in my OFFLINE media set but they also still show in my backup media set (the icons have minuses on them).

Is there a reason for this? Not sure if thats necessary to restore from backups later or if I did something incorrectly.

[Robert_Schmidt_]

Hi Brian. I'm not sure, but I think you might be confusing the uses of Media Sets and Media Location (vaults).

You create Media Sets to define the rules for when you want tapes to be used. For example, you might use 4 different tapes for Mon - Thu. So you would create a Media Set with an overwrite protection of 6 days. You then target your daily backup job to this media set. That way, if you accidentally load Mondays tape on Wed., backup will not overwrite it.

So, if you want to have the backup software help you make sure these 'old tapes' are never overwritten, create a media set called, say "Archive", and set the overwrite protection to "Infinite - don't allow overwrite". Then move the tapes to this media set.

Now, as for Media Location. Think of this as the physical location of the tape. When BE installs, there are 2 default locations - "Offline Media" and "Online Media". Again, think of these as locations, not states of the tape. "Online" simply means "physically in your device".

Every tape you have ever used in Backup Exec is either in "Online Media" or "Offline Media" location by default. When you load a tape, or if it is loaded in a library, it automatically goes to the "Online Media" set. If you have a single tape drive and auto eject when backup finishes, the tape automatically moves to "Offline Media". When a tape is offline (or when you manually put it in the "Offline Media" location, it gets the 'minus sign' icon. This is reflected in the "Media Sets" views to remind you it is offline (that is, not physically in the drive or library).

But, you can create additional locations to help you keep track of tapes. Let's say, for example, that those 'old tapes' of yours are going to an off-site vault company. Create a media location called "Off-site storage" and move the tapes from "Offline Media" to your new "Off-site storage" location. In the future, this will remind you where those tapes are physically located.

So, in summary: the "Archive" media set and its overwrite protection ensures the software doesn't overwrite the tape. The "Off-site storage" (or your choice) media location tells your where the tape is physically.