[Veritas-bu] New to Windows media servers

[manuel . j . desousa]

1. Should media be viewable on the master or media server? (all currently on master) -
It can be viewable on either, so you need to decide where u want to keep the volume database :
        master
        or
        media (default).
I prefer on Master - there is a touch file you need to create to allow this to happen.

2. How can I automate the exchange of media to make it the least painful for the onsite operators?
On our existing servers, tape is all handled dynamically with expiry going to the scratch pool. But
our remote sites have only ever dealt with defined Monday tapes, Tuesday
tapes, etc.

->- I prefer to provide them with a rota on when to change the media - less decisions and less confusion.
->- You will need to take into account the expiry date sof the media for this - set the retention so that the media expires 24hrs before inserting it.

3. Onsite operators will not have access to the server. Besides simply scheduling vmphyinv to run,
I'm stuck on how to ensure that media is properly ejected and injected via NetBackup. There is no 'media access port' to speak of on this autoloader.
->- try vmoprcmd (create a batch file for the ops to run off their desktop)
or
->- allow the ops Java access where you can manage their level of admin access.

4. What's the best configuration for policies, schedules and pools? I'm considering defining pools for each day of the week with pre-assigned media, but I'm concerned that the media will just be shuffled off to the scratch pool instead of staying in its own pool.
->- 1 policy and 1 pool is easier to manage...allows for hiccups in case a tape gets forgotten in the drive.
->- it is good if the media goes off to the scratch pool, Leave it as is, however if you must, there is a touch file to enable/disable this feature.
->- send an email an hour before backups kick off to the ops and you showing the tape drive status and tape mounted.


5. Should I be barcoding the media even if it doesn't have a barcode reader? I'm thinking of future
usage, but I also don't like the idea of having a media label of AAA123 but a physical label of
Monday Week 1. Initially I have made the description read Monday - 1, etc. while I try to figure this
out, so I can use that in any reporting. I will have added all the tapes prior to the deployment.
->- Barcodes can be bought using your naming standard. BUT label the media electronically (bplabel) before you pass them over or you will end up with A00012 tape ID's.
->- You could perl-a-script to automatically label the media electronically (bplabel) if none exists using your naming convention.
->- I used 2 week rotation of daily inc tapes in the past, ie: MON001 and MON002, TUE001 and TUE002, etc...
Again - this all depends on your data retention requirements.

JdS