About selecting media by using standalone drive extensions
With NetBackup standalone drive extensions, NetBackup tries to use any labeled or any unlabeled media that is in a standalone drive. This capability is enabled by default during installation.
The media selection process is as follows:
If a backup is requested and an appropriate standalone drive contains a volume, NetBackup tries to select and use that volume.
If an appropriate drive does not contain a volume, NetBackup selects a volume.
The Device Monitor shows the mount request, and an operator must manually insert the volume and assign it to a drive.
A volume that was used previously for backups must meet the following criteria:
Not be FULL, FROZEN, or SUSPENDED
Contain backups at the retention level and be in the same volume pool as the backup that requires a volume.
However, if the NetBackup host property is specified for the server, NetBackup does not require a specific retention level.
NetBackup selects unlabeled media only if the existing volumes that meet the appropriate criteria do not have available space to contain the new backup images.
If the media is unlabeled, the following actions occur:
NetBackup labels the media.
NetBackup adds a media ID to the volume configuration, if necessary.
If a media ID is added, the NetBackup Media ID prefix (non-robotic) is used as the first characters of the media ID.
If a media ID prefix is not specified, the default prefix is the letter A. For example, A00000.
NetBackup adds the requested volume pool to the volume configuration (if the backup policy specifies a volume pool).
If the unused media is unlabeled, label it by using the bplabel command. Specify the -u parameter to force assignment of a specific drive index, which eliminates the need to assign the drive manually.
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