Managing Devices and Media › Device Manager › Device Management Functions for Libraries › Offline and Online Removable Drives

Offline and Online Removable Drives

Arcserve Backup automatically detects removable drives that are connected via Universal Serial Bus (USB) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) to a Arcserve Backup primary or member server. Before you can back up data to a removable drive, you must perform a one-time configuration and then bring the removable drive online.

After you perform a one-time configuration, you can specify removable drives as online or offline from Device Manager by right-clicking on the drive and selecting online or offline (depending on the current state of the drive) from the pop-up menu.

Note: If there is media inside the drive that you want to mark as online or offline, eject the media prior to marking the drive offline. Arcserve Backup cannot access the media inside a drive that is in an offline state.

Arcserve Backup automatically detects and configures removable drives that are connected via USB or SATA to a Arcserve Backup primary or member server. Before you can back up data to a removable drive, you must configure the removable drive and then bring the removable drive online.

To specify a removable drive as online

1. Ensure that the removable drive is attached to a Arcserve Backup domain primary or member server.
2. Open the Device Manager window and expand the Servers object.

   Browse to and select the server to which the removable drive is connected.

   Arcserve Backup presents you with a list of devices attached to the selected server.

3. From the list of devices attached to the server, select and right-click the removable drive that you want to bring online.

   From the pop-menu, select Online.

   Arcserve Backup prompts you to confirm that you want to configure the device.

   Note: This message displays only the first time that you bring the removable drive online.

4. Click OK.

   Arcserve Backup prompts you to confirm that you want to bring the device online.

5. Click OK.

   The removable drive is now configured and is in an online state.

Use the Offline removable drive option when you want to perform maintenance, repairs, or detach a drive from your Arcserve Backup environment. For example:

• You do not want to use the removable drive for a period of time and you do not want to overwrite the media in the drive.
• You want to detach the removable drive from the Arcserve Backup server so that you can replace it with an identical removable drive, or remove it completely from your Arcserve Backup environment.

Important! When the removable drive is offline, jobs associated with the removable drive may fail.

To specify a removable drive as offline

1. Open the Device Manager window, expand the Servers object.

   Browse to and select the server to which the removable drive is attached.

   Arcserve Backup presents you with a list of devices attached to the selected server.

2. From the list of devices attached to the server, select and right-click the removable drive that you want to take offline.

   From the pop-up menu, select Offline.

   Arcserve Backup prompts you to confirm that you want to take the removable drive offline.

3. Click OK.

   The removable drive is now in an offline state in the Device Manager window.

Note: After you mark the removable drive as offline, <Offline> displays in the Device Manager window.