This screen enables the administrator to create, change, delete and consult tapes used for the backup and restore.
All tapes in Arkeia belong to a Tape pool. A new tape is made available for backup data storage by adding it to a tape pool which you have created, or the permanent Scratch pool.
To create a Tape pool, click on: Home > Where to backup >
Backup to tape > Tape Pools
. Before tapes can be transferred
between Tape pools, they must be Recycled
, to ensure that
backed up data is not lost.
New tapes for Arkeia Network Backup are added to a Tape pool.
Click on: Add a new tape
in the actions box at the
right, and fill the information required:
First #
and
Last #
below.FILE
in the Type
field,
you are backing up to a DD rather than tape. A FILE tape is actually a
virtual tape making it possible to do 'backup to disk'. Please note
that the best way to perform 'backup to disk' is through the dedicated
VTL object available in Home > Where to backup > Backup to
disk > VTLs
. FILE tapes are here for compatibility reasons
with old Arkeia versions. Enter the pathname to the directory
containing the FILE tapes here. See FILE Tape
below for
an additional field in this case.Tape name
field.The tape type listed as File tape in the scroll list is a special type. It is not really a tape at all, but is a simulated tape which exists on a hard disk drive accessible to an Arkeia media server.
There are two additional fields to fill when you choose Type:
FILE
When using a FILE
tape, some means of inserting
a new FILE tape into the drive is needed. For real tapes, this is done
either:
A FILE
tape cannot be physically inserted, so it is
necessary to create one or more FILE drives
) and a
special tape library, whose type is FILE too
.
NULL tapes may be used for tests. Backups will be directed to an empty device. Please note that no restorations are possible on this type of device.
A NULL tape is created just as a standard tape.
Click on Where to backup > Backup to tape > Tape
technologies > Tape Types
in the navigator at the left to see
the list of tape types supported by Arkeia, and their
characteristics.
One of the most important issues about tapes is recycling.
Once written, a backup tape is supposed to be reused at some point. With Arkeia, a tape can be reused once it has been recycled. Therefore, the recycling function must be an integral part of a tape strategy.
A tape is automatically recycled once it has reached its
Retention date
. This date is determined by the backup run
on that tape. The way the tape is recycled is determined by the
Recycling mode
and the Recycling pool
fields
in the tape definition.
Your tapes should be recycled very carefully, as you can run into quite a lot of problems once all of them are filled. Please note that, if you force a tape to be recycled, all data backed up on it is not available anymore.
To recycle a tape manually, select the tape to be recycled from the
list Select a tape
, then click on
Recycle...
. This will erase all references to this tape in
the database index. All data written on this tape will be lost, once a
backup has used the tape. After recycling, a tape is reused from its
beginning and any previous data it may contain is lost.
This function does not erase the data on the physical tape, it only marks the tape as recycled in the Arkeia database, making it available for re-use.
To change the properties of an existing tape, highlight it in the list, then click on Modify...
in the actions menu.
Click on Update
to update Arkeia's record of the tape.
After tape has been created or modified in Arkeia, it must be
physically labeled. Click on Write label...
in the actions
menu.
Choose the drive in which the tape is to be labeled, then click
Write label
. Arkeia will label the tape using the
properties which have been entered. From this point on, whenever the
tape is inserted to a tape drive, Arkeia will read the label and be
aware of the tape's status.
Click on the tape to be deleted in the Select a tape
list, then click on Delete...
in the actions menu. A
deleted tape is no longer managed by Arkeia. If it is added at a later
date, it is added as a new tape.
Display a table of backup data sets currently stored in the highlighted physical tape.