System Programmer Reference › Managing CA VM:Backup Catalogs › Considerations for Using Catalogs › Minidisk Space Considerations

Minidisk Space Considerations

The size of the catalog minidisk is affected by all of the following factors:

• Blocksize of the catalog minidisk
• Level of catalog detail recorded for each minidisk or file space backed up
• Types of backups you run (full or incremental) and frequency with which you run them
• Total number of minidisks, file spaces, directories, files, tracks, and blocks backed up
• The length of time catalogs are retained before being condensed
• The length of time catalogs are retained before being discarded

You can control some of these factors by specifying catalog guidelines at the time a backup job template file is created. Others are determined by how you use CA VM:Backup at your site.

Important! We recommend that the catalog minidisk be formatted with 4096 byte blocks. If you use the VMBMCOPY utility to copy backup tapes to new media, the catalog disk must be formatted with 4096 byte blocks. For more information, see VMBMCOPY Utility.