PV124T use tape without magazine

[CENTPA]

I have a Dell PowerVault 124T with 1 magazine (left with 8 slots) and Backup Exec 2010 for Windows SBS and everything is working perfectly.

However, I would like to manually backup twice per month and take the tape off premises.

I can physically insert the tape into the 124T and move it from the "mail-slot" to the "drive" thru the tape drive web interface.

However, Backup Exec does not recognize that there is a tape in the drive.

Is there something that I missed or must I use a magazine (with slots)?

Thanks

[teiva-boy]

I've found that mailslots are not always inventoried by backup apps.  You do a move from the interface (web, console, etc) and then inventory.  

Sometimes you can designate a slot as a mailslot in some apps, and when you "export," a tape it moves it for you.  Same for an "import," operation.  But that varies by model, driver, and backup app.

[CraigV]

Hi,

Why not simply partition the autoloader for the time you want to backup to specific tapes? Once the job completes, remove the partition.

Thanks!

[pkh]

You cannot just move the tape to the tape drive and use it.  BE will not be able to recognise what tape is in the tape drive.  In fact, putting a tape into the tape drive can cause BE to hang.

You should import your tape from the mailslot to a slot before you start your job.  If you don't have an empty slot, leave the mailslot empty and then do the import.  BE will export the tape from the non-empty slot and then ask you to remove the exported tape from the mailslot and insert the tape to be imported into the mailslot.  After you inserted the tape, it will be imported into the now-empty slot.