Introducing CA ARCserve Backup Agents and Options › Using Options › Tape Library Option › Introducing the Option › How the Option Manages Libraries

How the Option Manages Libraries

The option helps you manage libraries using the following capabilities:

• Multiple drive support--The option provides support for libraries with multiple drives and with single drives.

  Note: A CA ARCserve Backup Tape Library Option license is required for multiple drive libraries only.

• Multiple library support--These options support multiple libraries. The number of libraries that can be installed at one computer is limited only by the computer’s available resources and system performance.
• Concurrent drive initialization--The Device Manager allows you to track the initialization process. For multiple drive libraries, the Tape Engine uses all of the drives for the initialization process.
• Multiple, concurrent, device management functions--Includes storage drive cleaning from any specified slot. These options use available drives as needed on a library and perform device management functions concurrently (when multiple drives are available).

  The following library device management functions can be performed concurrently:

  • Quick Inventory
  • Format Slot Range
  • Erase Slot Range (both Quick Erase and Long Erase)
  • Importing and Exporting
  • Clean Library Drive
• Bar code ID (when supported by the tape library)--CA ARCserve Backup quickly locates individual media by reading the bar code attached to the media, thus not having to load the media into a drive.
• Quick initialization--The Quick Initialization option lets you quickly inventory libraries that do not have a bar code reader without having to stop and restart the Tape Engine.

  After installation is complete and the Tape Engine is started for the first time, the entire library is inventoried and recorded. For all subsequent starts, you can skip the normal inventory process by enabling the Quick Initialization feature from the Library Properties dialog.

  Note: If you move tapes in or out of a library using any method or mechanism other than the CA ARCserve Backup Manager interface, you must inventory the library using the Device Manager.

• Scheduled automated drive cleaning procedures--You can configure devices and schedule drive cleaning.
• Grouping by slots--Library groups employ the same concept as device groups, except that library groups are based on slots. You can select any of the slots inside a library to form a library group. If the library runs out of media to span to, you can insert new media and CA ARCserve Backup can identify the media as part of the pre-defined group.
• Single-step library group spanning--These options support single-step group spanning. Using this feature, you can insert new blank media into a library and continue the backup or restore operation without interruption because CA ARCserve Backup inventories the new media for you.
• Fault tolerant operations--These options provide continuous operation with a defective drive. If a drive in a multiple drive library becomes defective, you can record its status as offline. If the Tape Engine detects a problem reading and writing to and from a tape, the Tape Engine sets the drive status to offline. This enables the Tape Engine to continue to operate using the remaining non-defective drives in the library.
• Multiple, concurrent, group access--You can run as many jobs at the same time as you have media and drives available.
• Large library support--Allows a changer with more than 1000 slots to be displayed in a list on the right side of the screen instead of in the tree of devices. Slots can be displayed in the following manners:
  • Large or small icons
  • Library details
  • Reports and lists
• 64-bit Windows operating system support--The option supports backup and restore operations on 64-bit Windows operating systems running a 32-bit application.