Drive Properties - How To

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Mark MediaAgent/Library/Drive Offline for Maintenance

Mark a Drive for Read-Only Operations

View the Drive Offline Reason

View the Status of the Drive Controller

View the Drive Usage Information

View the Drive Throughput

Enable (or Disable) a Drive

Enable (or Disable) a Drive from a Specific MediaAgent (in a DDS setup)

Change the Drive Name

View the Job Information

Deconfigure Drives

Mark MediaAgent/Library/Drive Offline for Maintenance

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To mark MediaAgent/Library/Drive Offline for Maintenance:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the MediaAgent/Library/ Drive that you wish to mark offline for maintenance, and then click Properties.
2. Select one or more of the following options as appropriate:
   • To mark a MediaAgent offline for maintenance: Click the Control tab and then click and enable the Mark MediaAgent Offline for Maintenance option.
   • To mark a library offline for maintenance: Click the Status tab and then click and enable the Mark Library Offline for Maintenance option.
   • To mark a drive offline for maintenance: Click the Status tab and then click and enable the Mark Drive Offline for Maintenance option.
3. Click OK to save the configuration.

   Subsequent data protection, data recovery and auxiliary copy operations will not use the associated MediaAgent/Library/Drive.

Mark a Drive for Read-Only Operations

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To mark a drive for read-only operations:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive that you wish to mark as read-only, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Status tab.
3. Click Mark Drive as Read Only Mode to enable the option.
4. Click OK to save the information.

View the Drive Offline Reason

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To view the offline reason for a drive:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you wish to view the offline reason, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Status tab.

   Information on the drive offline reason is displayed in the Offline Reason box.

View the Status of the Drive Controller

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To view the status of the drive controller:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you wish to view the drive controller status, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Drive Controller tab.

   The status of the drive controller can be viewed in the Drive Properties (Drive Controller) dialog box. Note the following:

   The Active Library Controller is the MediaAgent with the Active, Alive and Enabled status as YES, and the Soft State as ON. (You can view the status of the library controllers by clicking the Detail button on the Active Library Controller or Failover Library Controller panes.)
   • In a library configured in the SAN environment, where several MediaAgents are configured as library controllers, at any given point, the MediaAgent accessing the library is considered as Active and therefore displayed as the Active Library Controller. All the other MediaAgents are displayed as Failover Library Controllers. The Active status will be displayed as No for the failover library controllers.
   • In a library configured in the non-SAN environment, where only one MediaAgent is configured as a library controller, the MediaAgent is displayed as the Active Library Controller. If either the Alive or Enabled status is NO, or Soft State is OFF, the Active status will be displayed as OFF and the MediaAgent will be displayed as a Failover Library Controller.

View the Drive Usage Information

To view the drive usage information:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you wish to view the usage information, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Odometer tab.

   The usage information is displayed.

View the Drive Throughput

To calculate the drive throughput for a specified time

1. In the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you  wish to calculate the throughput, and then click Show Throughput.
2. From the Show Drive Throughput dialog box, enter the number of hours for which you wish to view the information.
3. Click Show.

   The read and write throughput is displayed in the appropriate boxes.

4. Click Close to exit the dialog box.

To view the drive throughput for the past hour

1. In the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you  wish to view the throughput, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Hardware Info tab.
3. The drive throughput for the past one hour is displayed.

Enable (or Disable) a Drive

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To enable or disable a drive:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive you wish to enable or disable, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Status tab.
3. In the Status area, click Enable Drive.
4. Click OK to save the changes.

Enable (or Disable) a Drive from a Specific MediaAgent

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To enable or disable a drive from a specific MediaAgent:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive you wish to enable or disable, and then click Properties.
2. Click the  Drive  Properties (Drive Controller) tab.
3. In the Failover Controllers area, click the Enabled option for the specific MediaAgent.
4. Click OK to save the changes.

Change the Drive Name

To change the library name:

1. Display the Library and Drive Configuration window.
2. Right-click the drive for which you wish to change the name, and then click Properties.
3. In the Alias box, type the new name for the drive.

4. Click OK to save the changes.

View the Job Information

To view the job information:

1. In the CommCell Browser, right-click the drive for which you  wish to view the job information, and then click Properties.

   Note that a job should currently be running in the drive to view the job information associated with the job.

2. Click the Job Information tab.

3. Click OK to exit the dialog box.

Deconfigure Drives

Before you Begin

The number of configured drives in a drive pool cannot be smaller than the largest number of streams used by any storage policy that accesses that drive pool. For example, assume that a drive pool containing four drives is accessed only by a three-stream storage policy. In this case, you can deconfigure only one drive within the drive pool. The system prevents you from deconfiguring any additional drives. To deconfigure additional drives, you must first reduce the number of streams in the storage policy.

To deconfigure a drive:

1. Be certain that the drive that you want to deconfigure is not in use. Use the Job Controller to find and kill any jobs that use the drive. (For information on the killing a job from the Job Controller see Killing a Job.)
2. Make sure that a media is not mounted in the drive.
3. Display the Library and Drive Configuration window.
4. Right-click the drive that you want to deconfigure, and then click Deconfigure.
5. Click Yes in the confirmation prompt that appears to deconfigure the drive.

   The status of the drive changes to not configured.