Device And Media Management; Basic Volume Management Process - VERITAS NetBackup White Paper

Device and Media Management

One of the most impressive features of VERITAS NetBackup is the Media Manager. This powerful software manages the wide
array of tape and optical storage devices and media supported by VERITAS NetBackup. Media Manager is also easy to
configure and administer, thanks to a graphical user interface that allows the administrator to centrally manage and control
device and media information for all VERITAS NetBackup master and media servers on the network.
The Media Manager also allows users and other VERITAS storage management applications, such as VERITAS Storage
Migrator, to share its secondary storage devices. This eliminates the need for dedicated devices, and helps administrators
make the best use of their storage equipment investments.

Basic Volume Management Process

The three main elements of Media Manager are shown in Figure 24.
• Robot Management — supports robotic secondary storage devices.
• Device Management — lets you share secondary storage devices among different users and applications.
• Media Management — tracks the location of all removable media and secondary storage devices in your system, and
gathers media usage statistics.
The term volume as used in VERITAS NetBackup refers to the physical storage media on which VERITAS NetBackup stores its
backups, such as a tape or optical disk. The Device Manager controls the actual mounting of volumes on the tape or optical
storage devices in response to requests from VERITAS NetBackup or others. These requests specify both the volume name
and device density.
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Figure 25: Volume management.
V E R I TA S N e t B a c k u p R e l e a s e 3 . 4 Te c h n i c a l O v e r v i e w P a g e 33