How Arcserve Backup Supports Write Once Read Many (WORM) Media

Arcserve Backup allows you to back up your data either to rewriteable media or WORM media. WORM media, with significantly longer shelf life than magnetic media, manifests secure, long-term storage for data you do not want to erase.

Arcserve Backup lets you mix WORM and non-WORM media in a library. From the Device Manager, you can identify WORM media by an icon with the letter "W" inside a red circle. In addition, Arcserve Backup lets you specify WORM media for custom backup jobs.

The Backup Manager contains three options for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly WORM media rotations for use with GFS rotations. You can locate these options on the Backup Manager, Schedule tab, when you specify the Use Rotation Scheme option.

• WORM Media Supported
• For more information on the supported WORM Media, see Arcserve Backup Certified Device List (CDL).
• WORM Media Considerations

The following list describes situations that can occur when using a DLT WORM device with DLT WORM media and how Arcserve Backup responds to such situations.

• When a backup job spans tapes and the media is WORM media, Arcserve Backup needs WORM media to complete the job.
• If a blank WORM media is not available, and a blank DLT WORM-capable media is available, Arcserve Backup automatically converts blank DLT media to DLT WORM media and then completes the backup job.
• If WORM media is not available for a WORM job to continue, Arcserve Backup does not convert non-blank media to WORM media.
• When you are running a backup job that specifies Use WORM Media and there is no WORM media available, Arcserve Backup may convert blank WORM-capable media to WORM media for the job.

Note: For these scenarios, the available WORM media must be DLT SDLT-II or higher.

• WORM Media Limitations

If you use WORM media, certain Arcserve Backup features, specifically those involving media pools, reformatting, and overwriting or reusing media, are disabled because of the nature of the media. These limitations include the following:

• You cannot erase WORM media.
• You cannot submit an Overwrite job to WORM media.
• You cannot format WORM media unless the media is blank.
• You cannot use WORM media for multiplexing jobs.
• Arcserve Backup does not automatically assign WORM media to the Scratch Set in a media pool. WORM media cannot be recycled and as such, is always assigned to the Save Set in a media pool.
• Arcserve Backup cannot use WORM media with file system devices and Arcserve Backup tape RAID devices.
• In cross-platform SAN environments, UNIX does not support WORM media.