Tape labeling

[JHeaton]

We have 14 locations, that are going to have tape libraries for local backup.  I'm going to have my Master server here at our central location, and Media Servers at the field offices.

My question:

When we purchase our tape libraries, they ship with 60 barcode labels.  There's no difference in them, though, all numbered from 000001L4 to 000060L4.

Is that going to cause any issues, with all the locations having tapes numbered the same?  Or is it not an issue, since each set of numbers are on different media servers?

Trying to figure out if I need to order a sheet or two of customized labels, or not.

[Rajesh_s1]

As per my knowledge it may not be a problem , because you are attaching Tape libraries in Media servers at different site . But it will be very difficult you to manage in future because all the libraies will have the same set of barcode . My suggestion is to get different series of barcode according to diff location.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

It will most definitely be a problem. Although different media servers and different robots, there is only one voldb in the EMM database. Media-ids need to be unique.
Barcode 000001L4 cannot be simultaneously in robot 0 as well as in robot 1 and in robot 2....

You will have to ask your supplier to exchange the barcode labels or if they are already stuck on the tapes, get the tapes swapped out.

[J_H_Is_gone]

when you order tapes from your vendor start asking for custom barcodes

you could start each one with a specific Letter that represents the location ( you can also ask that each letter be a different color - this makes visual id of the tapes easier)  And with each media id having a different letter it will be easier for you to id what each tape is or belongs to.

And as Marianne said - one database all tapes need to be unique.

[JHeaton]

Thanks guys.  I've left a voicemail with the vendor we bought the libraries from, and I'll speak to another vendor on Monday.  We'll need custom labels, with the first 3 characters as letters, last 3 as numbers, then the L4 for the media type.