Change Data Path

Change the Data Path of a Storage Policy Copy

Important Considerations

Change the Data Path for a Backup/Backup Schedule

Important Considerations

Overview

The data path identified by the system based on the configurations in the CommCell can be changed. The following sections explain the available options.

Change the Data Path of a Storage Policy Copy

You can change the data path associated with media used by a storage policy copy to a different data path (library, master drive pool, drive pool and scratch pool) within the CommCell. Such media is still accessed by the same storage policy copy. However, the drive model, media type and barcode must be compatible between the two libraries.

The Change Data Path option is useful in many situations, including the following:

To free heavily loaded resources such as MediaAgents and libraries.
A library suffers severe hardware damage and you need to move its media to a different library in order to access data secured by data protection operations.
To move media from one library to another library to free a heavily loaded library.
You want to move media from one library to a different library for administrative purposes.
A drive pool within a library is being used much more frequently than another, and a storage policy copy from the more active drive pool can be assigned to the less active one.
You do not want your data recovery operations to be performed over a slow wide area network.

When you change the data path between two different libraries (source or destination), and the storage policy copy using the source library is configured for a storage policy copy failover in the event of a failure, once the operation is complete you must configure the storage policy copy for copy failover again on the destination library.

For disk libraries, you can also change the data path by migrating the library from one MediaAgent to another MediaAgent within the CommCell. See Migrate Disk Libraries for more information.

Changing data paths for media is a two step process:

First you must change the data path from the CommCell Console as described in Change Data Path for Tape or Optical Media.
This operation logically changes the data path For the associated media within the CommServe database.
Next you must physically move the media from the source library to the destination library.
It is strongly recommended that when you move the media, you use the CommCell Console to export the media from the source library and immediately import them in the target library.

In the case of tape/optical libraries, the new library may read the barcode patterns differently. In such a situation, update the media barcodes to use the media in the library. See Update Media Barcodes for more information.

Important Considerations

Change Data Path (right-click option) should not be performed on Storage Policies with Storage Policy Copies that have Alternate Data Paths (GridStor). If Change Data Path is performed on such a setup, data recovery operations can be performed from the media. However, subsequent data protection operations will not re-use the migrated media.

Change the Data Path for a Backup/Backup Schedule

Data can be backed up to any compatible library and drive type in the CommCell. By default the system automatically identifies the data path for backup operations as configured in the CommCell. You can change this data path at the backup level by selecting a specific Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, and Drive in the Advanced Backup Options dialog. The data path change can be specified at the backup, schedule and the schedule policy levels. Note that the data path changes specified are only applicable only for the specific backup job/backup schedule.

Ensure that the specified MediaAgent and the library or drive pool are available and accessible, failing which the job will go into Pending state. Failover protection does not apply here. Also, note that this setting overrides all other settings, including the data path settings at the Storage Policy, Subclient and the alternate data path (Gridstor).

The change data path options are useful in the following situations:

The preferred Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, or Drive is not available during the backup.
You wish to use a different Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, or Drive for load balancing purposes.
You wish to direct that backup to a particular location for compliance purposes.

See Backup Using a Specific Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, and Drive for step-by-step instructions.

You can schedule a backup job with a specific data path. See Schedule a Backup Using a Specific Library, MediaAgent, Drive Pool, and Drive for step-by-step instructions.

You can also change the data path of an existing backup schedule. See Change the Data Path of a Schedule from a Schedule Policy for step-by-step instructions.

Important Considerations

When you are restoring data that was backed up using a specific MediaAgent, library or drive pool, then ensure that you use the same configuration as the backup. See Browse and Restore/Recover/Retrieve Data From a Specific Data Path for details.