Appendix A — Best Practices Using Cartridges
December 2019 User Guide—Spectra T200, T380, and T680 Libraries
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Cartridge Rotation
During normal backup operations, tapes are rotated into and out of the
library. This section provides a simple example of the library’s media life
cycle functionality to manage tape rotation. Using a backup plan similar to
the one described in the following example for a period of time establishes
a media rotation schedule for the library. The example assumes the
following:
The library has a total of 17 licensed chambers and uses LTO media.
2 chambers are assigned to the entry/exit pool (20 slots, or
2 TeraPack magazines).
15 chambers are assigned to the storage pool (150 slots, or
15 TeraPack magazines).
The library contains 15 full TeraPack magazines and two empty
TeraPack magazines.
Two magazines containing 20 cartridges worth of backup data are sent
off site every Friday.
After the data ages two weeks, the media is returned to the library and
re-used.
The site adheres to the following best practices:
Whenever a TeraPack magazine is exported, another magazine
(either full or empty) is imported.
The library has enough empty TeraPack magazines to fill the entry/
exit pool.
This example shows that, by Week 3, the backup plan results in a full
media rotation in which the operator performed the following:
1. Removed and stored two full TeraPack magazines of media. Full
magazines were exported from the entry/exit pool and removed
through the TAP, resulting in an empty entry/exit pool.
2. Imported two full TeraPack magazines into the entry/exit pool through
the TAP and then used the storage management software to move the
media in the entry/exit pool into the storage pool.
Moving the media to the storage pool leaves two empty magazines in
the entry/exit pools, ready to accept media as the storage management
software identifies media as ready to be ejected from the library.
The following sections describe and illustrate the rotation process in more
detail.
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