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How the Media Management Process Works

The Media Management process includes setting a vaulting policy, scheduling tape volume movement, selecting tape volumes, defining retention policies, executing the vault cycle, and moving the media to the proper location.

After you set a vaulting policy and retention policies, the vaulting rotation process begins. You should run vault cycles as often as you run backup operations. For example, if you back up your data every day, you should also run a vault cycle every day. If you back up your data once a week, run a vault cycle once a week after your backup operation is complete.

The vault cycle process updates location information for tape volume sets, indicating movement into a vault or from a vault back to the Tape Service. You must initiate the process by clicking Start from the Vault Cycle menu on the MM Admin toolbar. You can also initiate the vault cycle using the ca_mmo -start or -startAll command at the DOS prompt.

Notes: 

Execute the Start Vault Cycle process to generate reports detailing the movement of the tape volumes and location information. The slots that already contain tape volumes and the new slots that will be vaulted are grouped together by their common schedule. Beginning with the first rotation in the schedule, tape volume sets are assigned to a vault and its slots based on the expiration criteria. Slots are automatically created and tape volumes automatically vaulted during this process.

When the first rotation is satisfied, the next rotation in the schedule is processed, and so on through the entire schedule until all rotations have been exhausted. Media management then generates reports indicating the current location and destination where the tape volumes must be moved. If you do not want to remove these tapes manually, you can use the ca_mmo -export command at the DOS prompt so MM Admin automatically exports them. See Device Manager for more information about command line utilities for media management.

You can use the Simulate Vault Cycle command to produce a Vault Selection Report. Use this command at any time to predict how many tape volumes will be moved without actually updating the location information. If you want to send the Vault Selection Report to someone by email, make sure your system is configured to send alerts using Microsoft Exchange and, from the Configuration menu, enable the option Send the report by E-mail. For more information on configuring alerts, see “Using the Alert Manager."

The vault cycle generates the Shipping and Receiving Reports, listing the old and new locations of the tape volume set, to provide you with the information you need to manage your media. These reports provide the following information:

If you want to send the shipping and receiving reports to someone by email, make sure your system is configured to send alerts using Microsoft Exchange and, from the Configuration menu, enable the option Send the report by E-mail. For more information on configuring alerts, see “Using the Alert Manager.”

When a tape volume comes under Media Management control, Tape Service updates the tape volume's location status to OFF_SITE. To prevent a tape volume from being used while under Media Management control, the tape volume is automatically checked out, and the location is updated to reflect this. Because all vaulted tape volumes are placed in checked out status, if you need to retrieve tape volumes, they must be checked into Tape Service before they can be used.