I have been using VXA autoloaders since the VXA-2 series, and originally used Backup Exec 9.1, then 10.x and now 11.x.
I still have 2 1x10 VXA-2 autoloaders and 1 1x10 VXA-3 autoloaders. Backup Exec works very well with them, treats them just like another autoloader. I'd like to help you out, but your questions sound like you need to spend some time aquainting yourself with Backup Exec, not the autoloader. It is vital to be famliar with the Administrator's Manual and it is well laid out. Use the "help" button on the bottom right of the B.E. screens too, to take you to the specific part of the Admin Manual that pertains to that screen and all the options on it.
One caution I have - do not activate the auto clean function on the autoloader. Instead, make sure, from the front panel on the autoloader, that the autoclean function is set to OFF. Let Backup Exec handle the cleaning: on the Devices tab, right-click the autoloader device, choose "Clean" and set it up to run twice a week at minimum. I found that the auto clean function on the autoloaders can interfere with running jobs.
On the Backup Exec Media tab, right-click on Media Sets and create/configure any you need: I separate my full backups into about 6 Media Sets according to which department's data the backup job contains. That makes D.R. a whole lot easier and faster. To do that, set up Media Sets such as "Acct" and "Payroll" and when you create the jobs just choose that media set - simple. If you don't send media offsite daily and want to leave it in the autoloader, you can set up media sets like "Monday" "Tuesday" and when you create your backup jobs choose the media set accordingly.
My daily differential and incremental backups are all in 1 Media Set, but because the jobs run on 3 different autoloaders, the backups still split up the data nicely for recovery purposes (3 different tape sets).
As to configuration settings on the autoloader, on the B.E. Devices tab, right-click the drive in the left-hand window and choose Properties then go to the Configuration tab. We use 64K blocks and 256K buffers. We have 18 buffers and a 10 high water mark. These autoloaders are all running on one media server, so the "write one block" and "read one block" are enabled, as are the SCSI pass through settings. I urge you to run test backups of several GB and change the buffer/block sizes and buffer counts until you get as much performance as you need. You can really push these VXAs.
As to media handling, use the front panel functions on the VXA autoloader to Export and Import media - it will do an inventory update as you do so. When you're done, go to the Devices tab in B.E. and right-click on "slots", choose "scan" and the current inventory will be updated on your screen.
