Managing A Tape Library - ACRONIS Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server User Manual

Keep in mind that a data recovery operation may require access to a number of tapes. For example,
data recovery from an incremental backup commonly might require loading, mounting, rewinding
and reading of the following tapes containing the data backups:

tapes storing the incremental backup selected to recover the data

tapes storing the last full backup created before the selected incremental one

tapes storing the last differential backup created after the last full backup but before the
selected incremental one if necessary

tapes containing all incremental backups created after the last full or differential backups before
the selected incremental one if necessary.
While a recovery task is running, the following tape-specific information is accessible from the
management console:
 labels of all the tapes that may be required for the operation
 label of the tape that is currently being read
 labels of the tapes that have already been read
 labels of tapes that are still waiting to be read with information of their current availability
(loaded or not).
4.1.3.6

Managing a tape library

To manage a tape library the following tasks/procedures are in the product:

Inventory (p. 138)

Rescan (p. 139)

Labeling (p. 139)
Any user with access to a managed vault on a tape library is able to perform these operations.
However two or more users cannot manage a tape library drive simultaneously, because some
operations can take minutes, hours or even days. For example, if a user launches a tape library
Rescan task, all other users' requests to perform the same task will be canceled automatically, as it is
already running on the vault.
Inventory
A storage node needs information about a tape in its own database to be able to operate with the
tape. So after the vault is created, generally the next step is to inventory tapes.
Inventorying is a procedure that allows the storage node recognize tapes that are currently loaded
into the tape library slots. It is relatively fast and normally requires reading the cartridge barcodes
without reading the tape data. If a barcode cannot be read, the tape will be mounted to read its
GUID identifier only.
The Inventory procedure can be run manually by a user or automatically, when access to recently
added tapes is required.
To launch the procedure select the tape library vault in the Navigation pane of the console, click
Manage tapes and then click Start inventory on the Tape Management window.
When inventorying is completed a user has the list of tapes currently loaded into the library.
Perform the procedure every time you load new tapes into tape library slots.
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