Managing Media in a Library

Overview

Several features to automate the process of managing media within the library are provided. The following sections provide a detailed discussion on each of these options.

You can automate the media discovery process in the library using one of the following methods:

When you configure a library, select the default media type and then click Yes in the Discover Media Options dialog box to automatically discover the media in the library.
If you have already configured the library and have not enabled the automatic media discovery during configuration, you can enable the Auto Discover Media option in the Media tab of the Library Properties dialog box.

Once the automatic media discovery process is enabled you can use the following mechanisms to manage media:

Manage Media Using Barcode Patterns
Manage Media Using Priority Schemes
Manage Cleaning Media in the Library

The following sections describe each of these options in detail.

Manage Media Using Barcode Patterns

This automated method of distributing media can be used when you have different barcode schemes or specific barcode ranges associated with specific purposes in the library. For example:

When you have a library with different drive types, you could have specific barcodes for media associated with each drive type. We highly recommend this method when you multiple drive types in the library. This will help you to easily manage and administer the media in the library.
When you have media that are not used by the MediaAgents in this CommCell (referred to as Foreign media in the software) stored in the library and use VaultTracker to manage the media movement of such media, you can use specific barcode patterns or ranges for foreign media.
If you already manage media using barcode patterns, you can use this method to automate the process.

Setting up Media Management using Barcode Patterns

When you use one or more standard barcode pattern(s) in the libraries in the CommCell, you can define from the BarCode Patterns tab in the Media Management Configuration dialog box. This dialog box is accessible from the CommCell Console Control Panel.(See Add/Modify Barcode Patterns for Media in a CommCell for step-by-step instructions.)

(You can add, modify and if necessary, delete existing barcode patterns in the CommCell from this dialog box.)

Once the specific barcode patterns are defined, you can associate the barcode patterns for the following Media Groups:

Default and <user-defined> scratch pools
Cleaning Media group
Foreign Media group

See Associate (or Disassociate) Barcode Patterns to a Media Group for step-by-step instructions.

Once this barcode pattern scheme is setup in the library, the system will automatically move the existing media in the library to the appropriate media groups. Media which do not belong to an existing pattern will be moved to the default scratch pool.

Similarly whenever media is imported or recycled, the system will automatically move the media to the appropriate media group.

Note that at any point you can also manually move the media between the media groups, if necessary.

Manage Media Using Priority Schemes

This automated method of distributing media can be used to ensure that high-priority operations always have the necessary media. For example, assume that you regularly back up both a file server with a large database containing mission-critical data and a number of user PCs. You may want to prevent situations in which data secured from less important user PCs use up all available media, causing vital data protection operations on file server to fail. You can do this by creating a scratch pool specifically for the storage policy copies that conduct data protection operations on file servers. Once the scratch pool is setup you can setup a priority scheme for media as explained in the following section.

Setting up Media Management using Priority Schemes

Create appropriate scratch pools for each category of data protection operation. For example, in the sample image appropriate scratch pools have been created for the each of the major data protection requirements.

Associate each scratch pool to an appropriate storage policy. For example, in the sample image appropriate storage policies have been created for the each of the major data protection requirements.

Create the priority scheme as follows:

Establish a Watermark for each of the media pools.
Indicate whether new media or recycled media should be used first.
Establish the Priority for the media group.

For example, in the sample image, since the scratch pool is associated with mission critical jobs, the low watermark is set to 10 and the priority has been set as High. This will ensure the following:

That a minimum of 10 media will always be available in the scratch pool. (When the minimum falls below the established watermark, the system generates an Event message and also generates an alert, if configured.)
When new media is imported, or when existing media is recycled, the system will always assign media to media groups priority set to high until the Watermark is reached, before assigning them to Medium and Low priority media groups.

For Spare Media Selection Criteria, the system chooses the media as follows:

If the Use recycled media first option is chosen, the system will select a media based on how many times the media was reused - the media with the highest value will be selected. For example, if you have 2 media, one media that has been re-used 3 times and another 2 times, the media which has been re-used 3 times will be selected first. If more than one media has the same value, the media which was discovered the earliest will be used from the media that has the same values.
If the Use new media first option is chosen, the system will select the media based on the discovery time - the media that was discovered the earliest will be selected. If there are no unused media, then the system uses the reverse criteria described above - the media with the minimum number of reuses is selected and if more than one media has the same value, between the media that has the same value, the media with the most recent discovery time is selected.

Keep in mind that excess media (beyond the watermark established in each media group) will be moved to the default scratch pool.

Also note that at any point you can also manually move the media between the media groups, if necessary.

Manage Cleaning Media in the Library

Most cleaning media have a standard barcode pattern. For example, many of the cleaning media have the alphabets "CL" in the beginning. Such specific barcode patterns on cleaning media can be used to discover cleaning media and automatically move them to the Cleaning Media Pool, when the automatic media discovery option is enabled in a library.

Cleaning media can also be automatically moved to the cleaning media pool as described in Manage Media Using Barcode Patterns. Also, read the information in Cleaning Media for complete information on managing cleaning media.