Storage Policies - How To

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Allow Erase Data in Storage Policy

Associate a Subclient to a Storage Policy

Associate Multiple Subclients to a Storage Policy

Change the Copy Precedence

Change the Maximum Number of Streams

Change the Name of a Storage Policy

Create a Selective Copy

Create a Storage Policy

Create a Synchronous Copy

Delete a Disaster Recovery Backup Storage Policy

Delete a Storage Policy that has an Incremental Storage Policy Enabled

Delete a Standard Storage Policy

Designate a Time Zone for a Storage Policy

Disable an Incremental Storage Policy from a Storage Policy

Enable an Incremental Storage Policy

Enable/Disable Stream Randomization

Tune Stream Randomization

Migrate a Disk Library

Password Protect the Media of a Storage Policy

Re-associate the Subclients of a Storage Policy

Start an Auxiliary Copy

View the Jobs Scheduled For a Storage Policy

View/Edit a Storage Policy

Disable/Enable Additional Subclient Associations for a Storage Policy

Hide Inactive Storage Policy

Hiding Storage Policies based on User Permissions


Allow Erase Data in Storage Policy

Before You Begin

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To assign a storage policy for erasing data:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy you want to allow for the erasing of data, then click Properties.
  2. From the (General) tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, select the Allow Erase Data check box.
  3. Click OK.

Associate a Subclient to a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To associate a subclient to a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the subclient whose associated storage policy you want to change, then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
  2. Click the Storage Device tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box.
  3. From the Storage Policy list of the Data Storage Policy tab, select a data storage policy to associate with this subclient. If necessary, click the Create Storage Policy button to create a new storage policy to which the subclient can then be associated.
  4. From the Changing a Storage Policy window select the next type of backup operation. Click OK.
  5. If applicable for your agent, you can change the number of data streams from the Number of Data/Database Backup Streams field.
  6. If applicable for your agent, click the Log Storage Policy tab and select a storage policy to associate with this transaction log subclient from the Transaction Log Storage Policy list. Also, you can set the Number of Transaction Log Backup Streams from this tab.
  7. Click OK to save your changes and close the Subclient Properties Storage Device tab.

Associate Multiple Subclients to a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To associate multiple subclients to a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click on the Storage Policy node, and select the Associate Subclients option.
  2. From the Subclient Association with Storage Policy window, select (highlight) the subclients to be associated or re-associated to a storage policy.
  3. Select the storage policy from the Change all selected Storage Policies to drop-down menu. All selected (highlighted) subclients will be associated to this storage policy.  
  4. Click OK to save your changes.

Change the Copy Precedence

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change the copy precedence of a storage policy copy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy whose copy precedence you want to change, and then click Properties.
  2. From the Copy Precedence tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, select a synchronous or selective copy and click the arrow buttons to change its copy precedence.  The arrows will move a copy to a higher or lower precedence in increments of 1. For more information, see Recovering Data From Copies.
  3. Click OK.

Change the Maximum Number of Data Streams

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To change the maximum number of data streams:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy whose quantity of data streams you want to change, and then click Properties.
  2. From the General tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, type the number of data streams that you want to allocate for the storage policy in the Device Streams field.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.

Change the Name of a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To rename a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy that you want to rename, and then click Properties.
  2. From the General tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, type the new name (up to 32 characters) in the Storage Policy Name field.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.

Create a Selective Copy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To create a selective copy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you wish to create the secondary copy, click All Tasks and then click Create New Copy.
  2. From the General tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
  3. Select a standard or custom calendar from the Calendar for Selective Copy and Extended Retention drop-down list. Note that this option is only available if a custom calendar was created.
  4. From the Retention tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
  5. Click the Copy Policy tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
    The All Backups option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a date from the Backups On And After field.

  6. Click the Selective Copy tab.
  7. If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00 A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule, select Automatic Schedule if you would like an Automatic Copy to run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run or schedule this job. Click OK.

Create a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To create a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the Storage Policies node, and select New Storage Policy from the shortcut menu.
  2. Follow the prompts displayed in the Storage Policy Wizard to configure the following:
  3. The Review Summary window is displayed. Review your selections and then click Cancel, Back (to return to a previous window to change a selection), or Finish (to exit and create the storage policy).

Create a Synchronous Copy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To create a synchronous copy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you wish to create the secondary copy, click All Tasks and then click Create New Copy.
  2. From the General tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
  3. From the Retention tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
  4. Click the Copy Policy tab of the Copy Properties dialog box:
    The All Backups option is not available for selective copies; therefore, you must choose a date from the Backups On And After field.

  5. Click OK to save your changes.
  6. If there are no auxiliary copy schedules defined for all copies of the storage policy, you are asked to confirm if you would like to schedule auxiliary copy operations for this copy. Select Default Schedule, if you would like an auxiliary copy operation to be scheduled to be run daily at 8:00 A.M., select Custom Schedule if you would like to define a schedule, select Automatic Schedule if you would like a Automatic Copy to run every 30 minutes, or select Do Not Schedule. Click Yes if you would like to run or schedule this job. Click OK.

Delete a Disaster Recovery Backup Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

Before you Begin

Create a new Disaster Recovery storage policy — a CommCell must have at least one Disaster Recovery storage policy. If you wish to deconfigure the mount path to reclaim the space, use a different library for the new storage policy.

To delete a Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the CommServe icon, click Control Panel, and select DR Backup Settings.
  2. From the DR Backup Settings (Export Settings) dialog box, in the Back Up Metadata to this DR Storage Policy dropdown list, select the newly-created storage policy.
  3. From the CommCell Browser, select the Storage Policies parent node to view the property details of all the storage policies displayed in the right-hand windowpane. Check the Disable Subclient Association checkbox for the Storage Policy for which you want to delete.
  4. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy that you want to delete, click All Tasks and then click Delete.
  5. A warning dialog box will display indicating that this policy is the active target of disaster recovery backups and a new target should be specified prior to deletion. Click Continue.

    If your Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy is defined in such a way that it is backing up to a removable media, a dialog box displays with a selection to export media. Note that you will not be prompted to export media if your Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy backs up data to disk media.

  6. If you choose to export media, from the Export Media (Delete Storage Policy) dialog box, select the media to be exported and click OK.
  7. Type an outside storage location in the Export Media dialog box and click Export. Click OK to the message displayed. For more information on exporting media, see Exporting a Specific Media.
  8. You can continue to export the existing media or choose to continue with the deletion.
  9. After clicking Continue, the Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy is deleted.
  10. If you chose to delete the storage policy without exporting media, you are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the storage policy. Click OK. The Disaster Recovery Backup storage policy is deleted. The associated mount path can then be deconfigured.

Delete a Storage Policy that has an Incremental Storage Policy Enabled

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To delete a storage policy that has an incremental storage policy enabled:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy you want to delete, then click Properties.
  2. From the General tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, clear the Incremental Storage Policy check box.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.
  4. From the Force Full Backup - Confirmation dialog box, select either the Force next backup to be a full (Recommended) field or the Do not force field (if you do not want to force the next backup to be a full backup).
  5. Click OK.
  6. Right-click the storage policy that you want to delete, click All Tasks and then click Delete.
  7. Click Yes to the confirmation message.
  8. Type erase and reuse media. Click OK.
  9. The selected storage policy is deleted and removed from the CommCell Browser.
If subclients are still associated with the storage policy that you want to delete, an explanatory message is displayed and the delete operation is aborted.


Delete a Standard Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To delete an iDataAgent Backup or DataArchiver storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy that you want to delete, and click Properties.
  2. Review the Associated Subclients tab. If you find any subclients associated to the storage policy, re-associate them using the Re-Associate option. Click OK to save the changes.

    Alternatively, you can disable all subclient association. From the CommCell Browser, select the Storage Policies parent node to view the property details of all the storage policies displayed in the right-hand windowpane. Check the Disable Subclient Association checkbox for the Storage Policy for which you want to delete.

  3. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy that you want to delete, click All Tasks and then click Delete from the short-cut menu.
  4. Click Yes to the confirmation message.
  5. Type erase and reuse media. Click OK.
  6. The selected storage policy is deleted and removed from the CommCell Browser. The associated mount path can then be deconfigured.
If subclients are still associated with the storage policy that you want to delete, an explanatory message is displayed and the delete operation is aborted.


Designate a Time Zone for a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To designate a time zone for a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click desired storage policy, and select Properties.
  2. From the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
  3. Click the Time Zone drop-down list, and select a time zone.
  4. Click OK to close the Warning dialog.
  5. Click OK to close the Storage Policy Properties dialog and save your changes.

Changing the designated time zone for an active storage policy can pose potential problems for your environment. Data aging operations prune data according to the time zone of the associated storage policy. Changing the time zone can cause a data aging job to prune data at an earlier or later time.

For example, a storage policy's designated time zone is defined as Eastern Standard Time (US and Canada), and several backup jobs are set to be pruned on October 31st. If the storage policy's time zone is changed to Eastern Standard Time (Australia), the jobs will still be pruned on October 31st; however, they will be pruned a day earlier.

As such, changing the time zone of a storage policy is recommended only for advanced users, due to the potential loss of data and environmental impact.


Disable an Incremental Storage Policy From a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To disable a storage policy that is associated with a full storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy that you want to disable the incremental storage policy from, then click Properties.
  2. From the (General) tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, clear the check box.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.
  4. From the Force Full Backup - Confirmation dialog box, select either the Force next backup to be a full (Recommended) field or the Do not force field (if you do not want to force the next backup to be a full backup).
  5. Click OK.

Enable an Incremental Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To enable an incremental storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy that you want to enable an incremental storage policy, then click Properties.
  2. From the General tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, select a storage policy from the Incremental Storage Policy list.
  3. Click Yes to the confirmation prompt that the next backup for all subclients for this storage policy will be forced to be a full backup.
  4. From the Force Full Backup - Confirmation dialog box, select either the Force next backup to be a full (Recommended) field or the Do not force field (if you do not want to force the next backup to be a full backup).
  5. Click OK to save your changes.

Enable/Disable Stream Randomization

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To enable stream randomization:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy for which you want to enable stream randomization, then click Properties.
  2. From the General tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, mark the checkbox for Enable Stream Randomization. Note that this field is only enabled when the storage policy is configured to use more than one (1) data stream.
  3. Click OK.
To disable this feature, deselect the checkbox.


Tune Stream Randomization

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To tune the stream randomization feature:

  1. From the Control Panel, double-click Media Management.
  2. From the Resource Manager Configuration tab of the Media management Configuration dialog box, perform the following:
  3. Click OK to save the changes.

Migrate a Disk Library

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To perform a disk library migration from one MediaAgent to another MediaAgent:

  1. Right-click the disk library that you want to migrate to another MediaAgent and click Migrate Disk Library.
  2. A message is displayed indicating that this operation migrates the disk library to another MediaAgent. Click OK.
  3. The Select MediaAgent dialog box is displayed. This dialog box displays the current MediaAgent that the disk library is associated with and allows you to select a MediaAgent to migrate to. From the drop-down list, select the MediaAgent you want to migrate to and click OK.
  4. The disk library will now be associated with the selected MediaAgent. To view the disk library properties to verify successful migration, right click on the disk library where you want to view the properties, and click Properties.

    The MediaAgent is displayed on the General tab.

  5. Make sure that the mount path associated with the disk library, points to valid path. (See Add or Modify Mount Paths for step-by-step instructions.)

Password Protect the Media of a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To password protect the media of a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy for which you wish to password protect the media, and then click Properties.
  2. From the Advanced tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box, select the Enable Storage Policy Level Media Password option. Note that the media password is used to prevent unauthorized access to the data residing on media used by the system for this storage policy. If not enabled, the CommServe Level Media Password is the default password.
  3. Enter the password information accordingly, and click OK to save your changes.

Re-Associate the Subclients of a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To re-associate the subclients of a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy whose subclients you want to re-associate, and then click Properties.
  2. Click the Associated Subclients tab of the Storage Policy Properties dialog box.
  3. Select the subclients, and then click Re-Associate.
  4. In the Storage Policy List dialog box, from the Select storage policy to which all the subclients will be associated: list, select a storage policy you would like to re-associate the subclients to. Click OK.
      To re-associate the storage policy copy of a DDB Backup subclient, make sure to select non-deduplicated storage policy copy.
  5. Click OK to save your changes.

Start an Auxiliary Copy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To start an auxiliary copy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you want to perform an auxiliary copy, click All Tasks, and then click Run Auxiliary Copy.
  2. In the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, the Storage Policy field is already populated with the name of the Storage Policy you selected.
  3. If the source copy is configured with a shared library, select the Source MediaAgent for the auxiliary copy.
  4. Select All Copies to copy data from the source copy to all secondary copies defined, or select a copy from the Select a Copy list box.
  5. Select Start new media to copy the data to a different tape or optical media. On a  disk, this option, when selected, creates a new volume folder for the operation.
  6. Select the number of streams to copy in parallel from the Number of Streams to Copy in Parallel pane, or select Allow Maximum.
  7. Select Mark media full after successful operation to mark the media that is used for this operation full after the auxiliary copy operation has successfully completed.
  8. Select Select Most Recent Full Backup When Auxiliary Copy Starts to have the most recent successful full backup for each subclient copied when the Auxiliary Copy job is run.
  9. From the Job Initiation tab on the Auxiliary Copy dialog box, select the time for this job to run or choose to Run Immediately. You can also configure an alert for this job.
  10. Click Advanced to configure the Vault Tracker, Startup and Job Retry options.
  11. Click OK to start the auxiliary copy operation. A progress bar displays the progress of the operation.

View the Jobs Scheduled For a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To view the jobs scheduled for a storage policy:

From the CommCell Browser, right-click the storage policy for which you want to view the jobs scheduled,

click All Tasks, and then click Schedules. The Scheduled Jobs Dialog dialog box displays the jobs scheduled for this storage policy.


View/Edit a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To view/edit a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, right click the storage policy that you want to view, and then click Properties.
  2. From the Storage Properties dialog boxes, you can view/edit the fields as deemed necessary.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.
You can view basic storage policy property descriptions by clicking on a Storage Policy in the CommCell Browser. The storage policy details are displayed in the right-hand windowpane.

Disable/Enable Additional Subclient Associations for a Storage Policy

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To disable additional subclient associations for a a storage policy:

  1. From the CommCell Browser, select the Storage Policies parent node to view the property details of all the storage policies displayed in the right-hand windowpane.
  2. Check the Disable Subclient Association checkbox for the Storage Policy for which you want to disable/enable additional subclient associations.
If a storage policy is marked as disabled for subclient associations, the storage policy will not be listed as available when creating/or editing the associations of a subclient. The subclient will also not be available for association when a new client is being installed to the CommServe, which has a disabled storage policy.  

Hide Inactive Storage Policies

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To hide Storage Policies from the CommCell Console:

1. Right-click the desired Storage Policy and select Properties.
2. Click the Associated Subclients tab to ensure that no subclients are associated with the specified storage policy.
3. Click the General tab, and select Hide Storage Policy.

Click OK to save your changes.  The storage policy is removed from the CommCell Console.

To display hidden storage policies, open the Media Management Control Panel, and view the Service Configuration tab. Then, change the value for the Show hidden storage policies parameter from 0 to 1.

Hide Storage Policies based on User Permissions

Required Capability: See Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To hide Storage Policies from the CommCell Console:

1. Click Security and then right-click CommCell User Group, and select New User Group. The New User Group Properities dialog displays.
2. Name the group (e.g., Storage Policy Management), and ensure that the Enabled checkbox is selected
3. Click the Capabilities tab.  Double-click Storage Policy Management to add it to the Assigned Capabilities list.
4. Click the Users tab.  Double-click all applicable users to add them to the Member Users list.
5. Click the Associated Entities tab. Expand Storage Policies. Select the applicable storage policies.

Click OK when finished. When the users log into the commcell only the selected storage policies are displayed.

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