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NetVault 12.4 - Administration Guide

Introduction Getting started Configuring clients Managing catalog search Configuring storage devices
About storage devices SAN considerations Quest DR Series systems Quest QoreStor NetVault SmartDisk EMC Data Domain Systems Snapshot Array Manager Virtual Tape Libraries Virtual standalone drives Shared Virtual Tape Libraries Physical tape devices Storage tiers
Backing up data Managing policies Restoring data Managing NetVault Backup dashboard Managing jobs Monitoring logs Managing storage devices
Role-based access to manage storage devices Monitoring device activity Managing disk-based storage devices in list view Managing disk-based storage devices in tree view Managing the Snapshot Array Manager Managing tape libraries in list view Managing tape libraries in tree view Managing tape drives in list view Managing tape drives in tree view Adding shared devices
Managing storage media Managing user and group accounts Monitoring events and configuring notifications Reporting in NetVault Backup Working with client clusters Configuring default settings for NetVault Backup
About configuring default settings Configuring encryption settings Configuring plug-in options Configuring default settings for post-scripts Configuring default settings for Verify Plug-in Configuring Deployment Manager Settings Configuring Job Manager settings Configuring Logging Daemon settings Configuring Media Manager settings Configuring Network Manager settings Configuring Process Manager settings Configuring RAS device settings Configuring Schedule Manager settings Configuring Web Service settings Configuring Auditor Daemon settings Configuring firewall settings Configuring general settings Configuring security settings Synchronizing NetVault Time Configuring the reporting utility Configuring NetVault Backup WebUI default settings Configuring NetVault Backup to use a specific VSS provider Configuring default settings using Txtconfig
Diagnostic tracing Managing diagnostic data Using the deviceconfig utility NetVault Backup processes Environment variables Network ports used by NetVault Backup Troubleshooting
Common errors Safe Mode in NetVault Backup

About Media Manager

The Media Manager process (nvmedmgr) runs on the NetVault Backup Server.

This process manages the Media Database, which contains information about the media contents and online backup savesets. The Media Manager also stores and manages the device configuration details. It manages the backup devices through the Device Manager processes. The Media Manager issues high-level instructions for loading and unloading media; the Device Manager processes carry out these instructions. The Media Manager controls the selection of device and media for a job according to the media requests submitted by the Job Manager.

You can modify the Media Manager settings from the Change Settings page.

 
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NOTE: You must restart the NetVault Backup Service to apply any changes to the Media Manager settings.

Configuring general settings for Media Manager

To configure general settings for Media Manager:
1
In the Navigation pane, click Change Settings.
2
On the NetVault Server Settings page, under Services, click Media Manager. In the Media Manager dialog box, under General Settings, configure the following settings.
 
Table 137. General settings for Media Manager
Setting
Description

Minimum life for imported backups

This setting specifies the minimum life for backups that are imported to the NetVault Database by scanning the backup media. This setting only applies to the backups that are not available in the NetVault Database.

When you import a backup, its data is temporarily stored in the NetVault Database for seven days. To change the default setting, type or select a new value. The minimum life setting is specified in number of days.

You can override the global setting by configuring the minimum life for imported backups at the time of scanning. For more information, see Scanning a disk-based storage device and Scanning tape media.

This setting does not affect the backups that have not reached their retirement age or generation count. For such backups, the backup life setting determines the retirement time.

Use barcodes as labels

You can configure NetVault Backup to automatically label blank media during backups by setting the Automatically Label Blank Media option in the Target Set.

By default, NetVault Backup assigns a system-generated string as the media label to blank media items. The string consists of the NetVault Backup Server Name, the current date, and a seed number. To assign media barcodes as the default label for blank media during backups, select this check box.

Continuation Restore Request Priority Boost

A continuation restore request occurs when an active restore job requires additional media for completion.

By default, these requests are assigned a priority level of 5 so that they are not preempted by other media requests and the active job is completed without any interruption. To change the default setting, type or select a value from 1 through 100. 1 denotes highest priority, while 100 denotes lowest priority. A job with a priority level of zero (0) runs as a background task.

Continuation Backup Request Priority Boost

A continuation backup request occurs when an active backup job requires additional media for completion.

By default, these requests are assigned a priority level of 5 so that they are not preempted by other media requests and the active job is completed without any interruption. To change the default setting, type or select a value from 1 through 100. 1 denotes highest priority, while 100 denotes lowest priority. A job with a priority level of zero (0) runs as a background task.

Label Request Priority

NetVault Backup assigns a priority level of 10 to bulk media labeling requests. To change the default priority setting, type or select a value from 1 through 100. 1 denotes highest priority, while 100 denotes lowest priority. A job with a priority level of zero runs as a background task.

Blank Request Priority

NetVault Backup assigns a priority level of 10 to bulk media blanking requests. To change the default setting, type or select a value from 1 through 100. 1 denotes highest priority, while 100 denotes lowest priority. A job with a priority level of zero (0) runs as a background task.

Bulk Label Callback Timeout

The callback timeout for bulk media labeling controls how long NetVault Backup waits for user inputs before ending these requests.

By default, NetVault Backup waits for 120 seconds for user confirmation. If confirmation is not received within the specified interval, the request is not carried out. To change the default setting, type or select a new value. The timeout value is specified in number of seconds.

Bulk Blank Callback Timeout

The callback timeout for bulk media blanking controls how long NetVault Backup waits for user inputs before ending these requests.

By default, NetVault Backup waits for 120 seconds for user confirmation. If confirmation is not received within the specified interval, the request is not carried out. To change the default setting, type or select a new value. The timeout value is specified in number of seconds.

Minimum interval between reporting online capacity

This setting determines how frequently the online media status is updated on the NetVault Backup WebUI.The default value is 10 minutes.

To change the default setting, type or select a new value. The update interval is specified in number of minutes.

Mark expired Read Only media as writable

This option prevents automatic reuse of retired read-only media.

When you select this check box, the read-only tag for a media item is automatically removed when the last saveset stored on it is expired, and the media item becomes available for re-use.

Existing read-only and expired media (all saveset are expired) prior to selecting this check box, will be writable when the next saveset is expired in the NetVault Backup after selecting this check box.

Maximum characters in a media request diagnosis

By default, NetVault Backup supports a maximum of 64,000 characters in the Diagnose Media Requests for Job dialog box. To change this setting, type or select a new value. The value is specified in thousands of characters.

Lesser number of characters may result in quicker output. However, the output may be truncated and you may not get the complete information. Therefore, you should not change the default value for this option.

Use Target media request timeout for Source media request

This option can be used to set timeout interval for source media requests. It applies to Plug-in for Consolidation, Plug-in for Data Copy, and Secondary Copy jobs.

When you select this check box, the timeout setting for the source media is automatically obtained from the Target Set defined for the job. If the required piece of media is not available within the specified interval, the job is aborted.

Force Process Media Request Queue Throttling

This setting allows NetVault Backup to interrupt the continuous processing of media request queues in very busy systems to allow other processing to occur. It determines the minimum response time between two media requests. The default value is 5 seconds. The value must be specified in number of seconds.

NOTE: This setting should only be changed under the direction of Quest Technical Support.

Life Of Segments Table Scan Results For Duplication

When performing Phase 2 Data Copy and Duplication jobs, the Media Manager stores the results of the Segments table scan so that it does not have to scan the table each time a media request is serviced. This setting determines the amount of time the cached results are retained by NetVault Backup.

The default value is 10 seconds. You can change it to any value between 10 and 1800 seconds.

Maximum number of sessions to retire at a time

By default, the Media Manager removes a maximum of 250 sessions per iteration. To change the default setting, type or select a new value.

Delete Unused Media Groups

This check box is selected by default.

When configuring the target media options for a backup job, the media group list only shows those groups that contain any media items. The Media Manager automatically removes unused media groups.

If you do not want to remove unused groups from the media group list, clear this check box.

Media Online Threshold (secs)

This setting allows you to select the time interval (in seconds) at which the NetVault Backup media manger updates the device status in the database.

Type or select the value. The default value is 0 second.The range for this setting is 0-600 seconds.

If the value of this setting is set to low, the device status is updated frequently resulting in overhead on media manager. If the number of media devices attached are few, then a lower value is preferred.

However, if more number of media devices are added then, enter a high value for this parameter.

NOTE: Increasing this value leads to delay in updating the device online status and does not affects the performance.
3
Click Apply to apply the new settings and close the dialog box.

Configuring retirement rules for dependent backups

By default, the retirement of backups from a backup series is deferred until all dependent backups are ready for retirement. The backups are retired only when the last dependent backup is retired. You can use the Retirement Timing Control setting to modify this behavior and force removal of backups according to their retirement schedule.

To configure the retirement rules dependent backups:
1
In the Navigation pane, click Change Settings.
2
On the NetVault Server Settings page, under Services, click Media Manager. In the Media Manager dialog box, under General Settings, configure the following setting:
•
Retirement Timing Control: You can use the following rules to retire dependent backups:
•
Force Always: When this rule is applied, a backup is removed when it reaches its retirement time. As a result, all backups from an Incremental Backup Series or a Differential Backup Series are retired when the first backup is retired. Forcing this behavior can cause early retirement of dependent Incremental and Differential Backups.
•
Keep Duplicates with Dependents: This rule specifies the retirement behavior of Duplicate Backups. When this rule is applied, Duplicates with dependents are retired only after all dependent backups have reached their retirement date. The Duplicate Backups are marked for removal according to the retirement schedule, but the removal is deferred until all dependent backups are ready for retirement.
•
Allow Duplicates with Dependents to Retire: This rule specifies the retirement behavior of Duplicate Backups. When this rule is applied, Duplicates with dependents are removed when their retirement date is reached only if the original backups or other copies are available for these backups. In the absence of the original backup or other copies, the Duplicate Backups are marked for deletion, and removed when the last dependent backup is retired.
3
Click Apply to apply the new settings and close the dialog box.

Configuring Media Manager settings for tape devices

To configure Media Manager settings for tape devices:
1
In the Navigation pane, click Change Settings.
2
On the NetVault Server Settings page, under Services, click Media Manager. In the Media Manager dialog box, under General Settings, configure the following settings.
 
Table 138. Device settings controlled by Media Manager
Setting
Description

Do not describe device activity in device window

Select this check box to stop status updates on the Device Activity page. It may help reduce the load on the NetVault Backup Server when several backup devices are added to the server.

Do not display drives that are available but not active

Select this check box to hide the offline devices on the Device Activity page.

Only check available drives and media when processing a media request

Select this check box to only check for available drives and media when a media request is received. It can be useful in large environment to reduce the network traffic generated by automatic checks. However, it may cause a delay in job startup when several jobs are started at the same time.

Only check available drives when processing a media request

Select this check box to only check for available drives when a media request is received.

Only check available media when processing a media request

Select this check box to only check for available media when a media request is received.

Do not issue Prevent/Allow Media Remove commands to drives

During backup and restore operations, the Media Manager issues PREVENT/ ALLOW MEDIUM REMOVAL SCSI commands to move a tape to or from a drive. If your library software can handle tape removal or ejection by itself and does not require any explicit commands to be sent to the drive, you can select this check box. When this check box is selected, the Media Manager skips the PREVENT/ALLOW MEDIUM REMOVAL SCSI commands during device operations.

Do not open a device if the serial number has changed

Select this check box to stop issuing commands to a device whose serial number has changed since its last configuration for NetVault Backup.

Unavailable device retry interval

Type or select the interval at which NetVault Backup tries to locate unavailable devices. The retry interval is specified in minutes. The default value is 30 minutes.

Allow library modification when jobs are running

Select this check box to allow a user to modify the library settings while it is in use.

Do Not Scan Unknown Media

When you add tapes to a library, and close the door (or restart the library), NetVault Backup takes inventory by reading the media barcodes. If NetVault Backup cannot find the barcode for a piece of media, it marks that tape as “UNKNOWN.” NetVault Backup loads each unknown tape into one of the drives to scan for backups and on-tape indices. On large systems, this process can increase the burden on the drive resources. If you do not want to scan unknown tapes and leave them as “UNKNOWN,” select this check box.

This setting applies to all new libraries that are added to the NetVault Backup Server. It does not change the setting for existing libraries. To apply this setting to an existing library, you must remove the library and re-add it.

3
Click Apply to apply the new settings and close the dialog box.
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