Optical Libraries

Overview

You can configure optical libraries attached to a MediaAgent running on a Windows platform. Optical libraries with or without barcode readers can be configured. However, optical libraries (with or without barcode reader) can be configured only on Windows 2000, Windows 2003 servers, and Windows 2008 servers (32 bit, x64, and R2 editions).

Both the configuration and operations in an optical library are similar to that of a tape library. The following sections describe the issues that are specific to the optical libraries.

All the library, drive and media operations in an optical library are similar to that of a tape library. Refer to the following sections for more information:

Optical Library Configuration

The optical library must be attached to a MediaAgent running on a Windows server computer. The library and/or drives can be connected through SCSI adaptors. We recommend to connect no more than four drives per SCSI card.

Observe the following guidelines while configuring optical libraries

The latest firmware version should be loaded to the library.
Use all optical drives with the same speed and optical cartridges of same capacity.
Do not set the data-protect tab on any cartridge. Setting the data-protect tab will fail all operations on the cartridge.
Disable the library’s media changer in the Windows Device Manager as described in the Driver Configurations.
Also make sure that the Removable Storage service is disabled.
Libraries containing UDO and DVD media will be configured as blind libraries.

The optical library can be configured using one of the following configurations:

Direct-attached library (See Direct-Attached Libraries for more information.)
Direct-attached shared library (See Direct Attached Shared Libraries for more information.)

If the optical library does not have a barcode reader, you can configure the library as a blind library. (See Blind Libraries for more information.)

Best Practices for Optical Libraries

Observe the following guidelines while using the optical libraries:

Do not explore or browse any Removable Disk (X:) which corresponds to an optical drive in the optical library. Doing so may lock the drive for data access and may result in data corruption.
Do not have volume management services from other software vendors running. This would interfere with the MediaAgent software in terms of managing the optical platters.