NetVault 12.3 - Administration Guide

Machine and Date: To use a system-generated string as the media label, select this option. This string consists of the NetVault Backup Server Name, the current date, and a seed number.

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User Defined: To assign user-defined label, select this option, and provide the following details:

– Label: Specify the string that you want to use as the media label.

A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. NetVault Backup does not support a “%” character in the string.

There is no length restriction on media and group labels. However, the combined display range for the media label, barcode and group label is 100 characters. Therefore, a maximum of 40 to 50 characters is recommended for the media and group labels.

– Seed: To identify individual media items, a sequential number is added to the user-defined string. The option defines the initial value for the sequence. This value is increased by one for each item. The default value for this option is one.

Group Label

To add the media items to a group, select the group label in the list. If you want to create a group label, type the string.

A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. Group labels are case-insensitive.

All Media in List

To label all media items in the selected library, select this check box.

Media to Label

To label specific media items, select the individual media items in the list.

To select consecutive items, hold down the Shift key while clicking with the mouse button; to select non-consecutive items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking with the mouse button.

Click OK to save the settings.

Labeling multiple tapes in a library in tree view

To bulk label media items or media groups, follow these steps:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices.

In the list of devices, locate and click the target library.

Click Bulk Label.

In the Bulk Label Media window, configure the following parameters:


	NOTE: The bulk media labeling and grouping features are not applicable to NetVault SmartDisk Device.

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Type of Media to Label: Select the type of media to be labeled:

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Blank: Select this check box to label any blank, non-labeled piece of media in a device that is currently accessible to the NetVault Backup Server.

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Other: Select this check box to bulk label media types that do not belong to any category listed here.

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NetVault 5: Select this check box to label any piece of media that was used to back up data with NetVault Backup 5.x.

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Reusable: Select this check box to label a piece of media that is marked as reusable.

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Type of Label: Select the type of media label:

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Barcode: To use media barcodes as the media labels, select this option.

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Machine and Date: To generate a string using the NetVault Backup Server Name, Current Date, and a Seed Number, select this option.

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User: To assign a user-defined label, select User, and enter the following details:

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Label: Enter the string to be used as media label. NetVault Backup does not support a “%” character in the string. A media label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot include Non-English characters.


	NOTE: There is no length restriction on media and group labels. However, the combined display range for the media label, barcode, and group label is 100 characters. Therefore, a maximum of 40-50 characters is recommended for the media and group labels.

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Seed: For the identification of individual media items, NetVault Backup adds a sequential number to the user-defined string. The Seed parameter provides the initial value for the sequence. This value is incremented by one for each media item. The default value for Seed is one.

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Group Label: To add the media items to a group, select the group label in the list. If you want to create a new group label, enter the string. The group label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot include Non-English characters.

Group labels are case-insensitive. NetVault Backup does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters in a media group label while creating and using media groups.

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Select Media Items: Select the applicable method:

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Select Individual Media Items: In the media list, select the individual media items for labeling. To select consecutive items, hold down the Shift key while clicking with the mouse button; to select nonconsecutive items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking with the mouse button.

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Select All Media Items: To label all media items in the list, select the All Media in List check box.

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Enter ‘LABEL’ to Confirm Request: To confirm bulk labeling, enter LABEL in the box. This string is case insensitive.

Click OK.

Labeling a single tape in list view

To label a single tape:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices, and in the list of devices, click the icon

to open the library that contains the tape.

If the tape is loaded in a drive, click the drive or the corresponding Manage Drive icon

Otherwise, click the Slots link or the corresponding Manage Slots icon

to open the Slot Browser. In the list of slots, select the slot that has the tape.

Click Label, and in the Media Label dialog box, configure the following options.

Table 94. Labeling a single tape (list view)
Option	Description
Label	Specify a label for the tape. A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. NetVault Backup does not support a “%” character in the string. There is no length restriction on media and group labels. However, the combined display range for the media label, barcode and group label is 100 characters. Therefore, a maximum of 40 to 50 characters is recommended for the media and group labels.
Group Label	To add the tape to a group, select the group label in the list. If you want to create a group label, type the string. A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. Group labels are case-insensitive.
Offsite Location	Specify the off-site location for the tape.

Click OK to save the settings and close the dialog box.

Labeling a single tape in tree view

To label a single tape:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices, and in the list of devices, open the library that contains the tape.

In the list of slots, click the slot that has the tape and then click Properties.

In the Media Label dialog box, configure the following options.

Table 95. Labeling a single tape (tree view)
Option	Description
Media Label	Specify a label for the tape. A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. NetVault Backup does not support a “%” character in the string. There is no length restriction on media and group labels. However, the combined display range for the media label, barcode and group label is 100 characters. Therefore, a maximum of 40 to 50 characters is recommended for the media and group labels.
Group Label	To add the tape to a group, select the group label in the list. If you want to create a group label, type the string. A label can contain alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters, but it cannot contain non-Latin characters. Group labels are case-insensitive.
Offsite Location	Specify the off-site location for the tape.
Tape Format	Select MTF on Windows and CPIO on Linux/UNIX.

Select Read Only or Unusable check box as per your requirement.

Click OK to save the settings and close the dialog box.

Blanking tape media

Blanking a tape deletes or erases the backup data residing on the tape. It removes the NetVault Backup header from the tape and deletes the media label and removes any group association. Blanking a tape also removes the indexes for backups stored on the selected tapes from the NetVault Database.

After blanking, a tape becomes available to NetVault Backup for storing future backups.

To purposely destroy the data that is stored on a tape, you must blank it from NetVault Backup and have its data securely removed by tools that are designed for such purposes.

The following sections describe the procedures that you can use to blank tape media:

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Blanking multiple tapes in a library in list view

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Blanking multiple tapes in a library in tree view

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Blanking a single tape in list view

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Blanking a single tape in tree view

Blanking multiple tapes in a library in list view

To blank multiple tapes in a library:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices.

In the list of devices, click the icon

to locate the library, and then click the corresponding Manage Library icon

On the Tape Library Management page, click Bulk Blank, and configure the following options.

Table 96. Bulk blank
Option	Description
All media in list	To blank all media items in the Media that can be blanked list, select this check box.
Media that can be blanked	To blank specific media items, select the items in this list. To select consecutive items, hold down the Shift key while clicking with the mouse button; to select non-consecutive items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking with the mouse button.
Password	Type the password for the NetVault Backup Server. If no password is set for the NetVault Backup Server, provide the system's root or administrator password.
Enter 'BLANK' to confirm request	To confirm, type BLANK (case-insensitive) in this box.

Click OK.

Blanking multiple tapes in a library in tree view

To blank multiple tapes in a library:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices.

In the list of devices, locate and click the library in which the media items reside.

Click Bulk Blank.

In the Bulk Blank Media dialog box, configure the following parameters:

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Select Media Items

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Select Individual Media Items: In the media list, select the individual media items for blanking. To select consecutive items, hold down the Shift key while clicking with the mouse button; to select non-consecutive items, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking with the mouse button.

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Select All Media Items: To blank all media items in the list, select the All Media in List check box.

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Password: Enter the password for the NetVault Backup Server.

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Enter ‘BLANK’ to Confirm Request: To confirm bulk blanking, enter BLANK in the box. This string is case-insensitive.

Click OK.


	NOTE: This procedure cannot be used to blank an NetVault SmartDisk Device.

Blanking a single tape in list view

To blank a single tape:

To blank a tape from the Manage Devices page:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices, and in the list of devices, click the icon

to open the library that contains the tape.

If the tape is loaded in a drive, click the drive or the corresponding Manage Drive icon

Otherwise, click the Slots link or the corresponding Manage Slots icon

to open the Slot Browser. In the list of slots, select the slot that has the tape.

To blank a tape from the Explore Storage page:

In the Navigation pane, click Explore Storage.

Click Explore Tape Storage. In the list of media items, select the tape, and click Explore Media.

Click Blank, and then in the confirmation dialog box, click OK.

Blanking a single tape in tree view

To blank a single tape:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices, click the slot that has the tape.

Click Blank, and then in the confirmation dialog box, click OK.

Scanning tape media

You can use the Scan method to query all backups stored on a tape and import those backups that are not indexed in the given NetVault Backup Server’s database. You can also use the Scan method to import “foreign” tapes into the NetVault Database.

To import and restore NetVault Database backups to an alternate backup server, the alternate NetVault Backup Server must have the same NetVault Backup Machine Name as the original server that performed the backups. The amount of time it takes to scan the tapes depends on the number of backups that need to be imported and the size of the backup indexes. The scanning process does not read the data on the tape; this process skips between the start and end of backups to read the index for each backup saveset.

You can scan indexes that are generated with the same or previous versions of NetVault Backup. You cannot scan indexes generated with a newer version of NetVault Backup on an earlier version of the server if the servers do not use the same index version. If an index version is not supported, the index is not imported and a message is generated in the logs.

When a tape is swapped between libraries, removed from the NetVault Backup Server, or loaded on a device that is controlled by a different NetVault Backup Server, the NetVault Backup Server is unable to find any information about that tape in the NetVault database. In this case, the first scan retrieves header information from the tape and adds this information to the NetVault database and then marks the tape as "foreign". NetVault Backup cannot import backups stored on a “foreign” tape until you scan the tape again.

The following sections describe the procedures that you can use to scan tape media:

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Scanning all tapes in a library in list view

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Scanning all tapes in a library in tree view

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Scanning a single tape in list view

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Scanning a single tape in tree view

Scanning all tapes in a library in list view

To scan all tapes in a library:

In the Navigation pane, click Manage Devices.

In the list of devices, click the icon

to locate the library, and then click the corresponding Manage Library icon

On the Tape Library Management page, click Scan All. (If NetVault Backup fails to start the process, click Force Scan.)

In the Scan Device dialog box, you can configure the following option:

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Minimum life for imported backups: This option specifies the minimum life for backups that are imported to the NetVault Database. This option only applies to the backups that are not available in the NetVault Database.

The default value for this option is seven days. You can change the default setting by modifying the Media Manager settings. For more information, see Configuring general settings for Media Manager.

To change the minimum life setting for the current session, type or select a new value. The minimum life setting is specified in number of days.

Depending on the value set for this option, the retirement time for imported backups is modified as follows:

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If a backup is already retired, its retirement time is set to the specified minimum life. If you specify zero, the retirement time for the retired saveset is set to one hour.

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If a backup is scheduled to retire before the specified period, its retirement time is set to the specified minimum life.

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If a backup is scheduled to retire after the specified period, its retirement time remains unchanged. For such backups, the backup life setting determines the retirement time.

Click Scan to start the scanning process and close the dialog box.

Scanning all tapes in a library in tree view

To scan all tapes in a library: