NetVault 12.3 - Administration Guide

Specifying media options

To configure media options for a backup job:

On the Backup Job Wizard — Create Target Set page, click Media Options, and configure the following settings.

Figure 15. Media Options dialog box

Table 39. Media Options for Target Set

Option

Description

Target media by

Select one of the following options:

•

Any media not in a group: This option is selected by default. To use media items that do not belong to any media group, leave this option selected.

•

Any media: To use any suitable media item regardless of its group association, select this option.

•

Specific Media ID: To use particular media items, select this option. In the list of media items, select the label for the target media.

•

Media in group: To use media items that belong to a particular media group, select this option. In the list of media items, click the group label for the target media. Media group labels are case‑insensitive.

Label Media

To automatically label blank media items during backup, select the Automatically label BLANK media check box.

By default, NetVault Backup assigns a system-generated label to blank media. The label consists of the NetVault Backup Server Name, the current date, and a seed number.

You can configure NetVault Backup to use media barcodes as the default labels. For more information, see Configuring general settings for Media Manager.

NOTE: If a piece of media that previously appeared to contain data becomes unexpectedly blank, it is marked as “suspect” to ensure that auto‑labeling does not occur for it. NetVault Backup does not permit the use of same label, whether user-specified or system-generated, to ensure that only one label is associated with a piece of media. A notification event occurs when any piece of media becomes unexpectedly blank.

Reuse media

Select the appropriate option from the following:

•

Never: This option is selected by default. To ensure that media marked for re-use are not used for backup, leave this option selected.

•

Any: To allow any suitable reusable backup media regardless of the group association, select this option.

•

With the same group label as target media: To reuse media that belong to same media group as the target media, select this option. This option can only be set if you have specified a group label for the Target media by option.

NOTE: A piece of media is automatically marked for reuse when the last saveset stored on it is retired. To manually mark a piece of media for re‑use, see Marking a tape for reuse.

Media request timeout

Type or select the amount of time NetVault Backup waits for the backup media. The timeout value is specified in number of minutes. If the required media item is not available within the specified interval, the job is automatically aborted.

The default value is zero (0). With the default setting, the job waits indefinitely until the media is provided or the job is manually aborted.

The maximum timeout period that can be set is 1440 minutes (24 hours), which ensures that current instance is aborted before NetVault Backup runs the next instance of a Daily job.

NOTE: The timeout interval for media requests cannot be less than 5 minutes. The interval is automatically set to the nearest 5 minutes, if you specify a value that is not a multiple of 5. For example, if you specify 8 minutes, the timeout value is set to 10 minutes, and if you specify 23 minutes, the timeout value is set to 25 minutes.


	NOTE: Backups to disk-based devices are stream-oriented. The concept of media does not apply to disk-based devices. The media options Target Media By, Label Media, and Reuse Media do not apply to disk-based storage devices. If a media group contains tape media and NetVault SmartDisk devices, NetVault Backup always uses the physical or virtual tape media from that group. To write backups to a NetVault SmartDisk device, you must explicitly select the device.

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

Configuring media sharing options

To configure media sharing options:

On the Backup Job Wizard — Create Target Set page, click Media Sharing, and configure the following settings.

Table 40. Media Sharing options for Target Set
Option	Description
Ensure backup is the first on the target media	To write a backup at the beginning of a tape, select this check box. The data can be restored quickly if the saveset is located at the beginning of a physical tape. Only new or blank media are eligible for backups that use this option. NOTE: When performing multi-stream backups, do not select the Ensure backup is the first on the target media check box. If you select this check box for multi-stream backups, each data stream targets a separate piece of media to exist as the first backup on the media item. Thus, if a backup generates five streams, the job tries to obtain five blank or new media items.
Protect media from further writes after backup	To write-protect a piece of media after the backup completes, select this option. NOTE: To mark any existing tapes as “read-only,” see Marking a tape as read-only.
Only use media with a minimum of <x> gigabytes of free space	To specify the minimum amount of space required on the target media, type or select the value. The value must be specified in GB.


	NOTE: The Media Sharing options do not apply to disk-based storage devices.

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

Creating Source Sets for backup jobs

Source Sets are used to specify source device options. Source Sets are required for Plug-in for Consolidation jobs, Plug-in for Data Copy jobs, and Secondary Copy jobs.You can create Source Sets from the Create Backup Job page.

To create a Source Set:

Start the backup job wizard, and click Create New next to the Source Storage list.

On the Backup Job Wizard — Create Source Set page, click Device Selection, and configure the following settings.

Table 41. Device Selection options for Source Set
Option	Description
Any Device	This option is selected by default. If you do not specify a device type, NetVault Backup uses any suitable device for a job.
Specify Device	To use particular devices for a job, select this option. In the associated box, clear the check marks for the devices that you do not want to use. When you remove a library, the associated drives are automatically removed.
Local Drives Only	To use only devices that are locally attached to the target client, select this check box. NOTE: NetVault SmartDisk is considered a network-attached device or a non-local device.