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  1. Home
  3. Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume I
  5. Section III. Configuring storage
  7. Configuring robots and tape drives
  9. Adding a tape drive to NetBackup manually
  11. Tape drive configuration options
  13. Drive information (tape drive configuration options)
Veritas NetBackup™ Administrator's Guide, Volume I

Drive information (tape drive configuration options)

The Drive information group box includes drive properties. The properties that you can specify depend on the drive type, server platforms, and NetBackup server types.

The following table describes the tape drive configuration options.

Table: Tape drive configuration options

Option

Description

Drive type

Specifies the type of drive. The following are the valid drive types:

  • 4MM (4mm cartridge)

  • 8MM (8mm cartridge)

  • 8MM2 (8mm cartridge 2)

  • 8MM3 (8mm cartridge 3)

  • DLT (DLT cartridge)

  • DLT2 (DLT cartridge 2)

  • DLT3 (DLT cartridge 3)

  • DTF (DTF cartridge)

  • HCART (1/2-inch cartridge)

  • HCART2 (1/2-inch cartridge 2)

  • HCART3 (1/2-inch cartridge 3)

  • QSCSI (1/4-inch cartridge)

Drive is in a robotic library

Specifies that the drive is in a robot. If the drive is a standalone drive (it is not in a robot), do not select this option.

If you select this option, configure the Robotic library and Robot drive number fields.

Cleaning Frequency

Specifies the frequency-based cleaning for the drive. NetBackup does not support drive cleaning in some robot types.

If you want to configure a frequency-based cleaning schedule for the drive, set the number of mount hours between each drive cleaning. When you add a drive or reset the mount time to zero, NetBackup records the amount of time that volumes have been mounted in that drive. The default frequency is zero.

When the accumulated mount time exceeds the time you specify for the cleaning frequency, drive cleaning occurs if the following are true:

  • If the drive is in a robotic library that supports drive cleaning

  • If a cleaning cartridge is defined in that robotic library

  • If the cleaning cartridge is compatible with the drive that needs to be cleaned

  • If the cleaning cartridge has a nonzero number of cleanings that remain

NetBackup resets the mount time when the drive is cleaned.

Drives can also be cleaned from the Device Monitor.

If you do not specify a cleaning frequency, you can still use automated drive cleaning with the TapeAlert feature. Information about TapeAlert drive cleaning is available.

See the NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume II:

http://www.veritas.com/docs/DOC5332

Drive Status

On UNIX only.

Specifies the availability of the drive.

When you add a drive, the default drive status is UP, which means the drive is available. When a drive is UP, the default mode is AVR (Automatic Volume Recognition).

To change the drive status, click UP or DOWN.

You can also change the drive status by using the commands on the Actions menu in Device Monitor.

Serial Number

A read-only field that shows the serial number of the drive.

Robotic library

Specifies a robot that controls the drive. You can select any configured robot that can control the drive.

Robot drive number

Specifies the physical location in the robot of the drive. When you add more than one drive to a robot, you can add the physical drives in any order. For example, you can add drive 2 before drive 1.

The correct robot drive number is critical to the proper mounting and utilization of media. You must determine which logical device name (Windows) or the device file (UNIX) identifies which physical drive in the robot. You should correlate the drive serial number with drive serial number information from the robot, as follows:

  • On Windows: You must determine which physical drive in the robot is identified by the logical device name.

    See Correlating tape drives and SCSI addresses on Windows hosts.

  • On UNIX: You must determine which physical drive in the robot is identified by the device file name.

    See Correlating tape drives and device files on UNIX hosts.

NetBackup does not detect incorrect drive number assignment during configuration; however, an error occurs when NetBackup tries to mount media on the drive.

Note:

The Robot drive number property does not apply when you add drives to API robots. API robots are ACS, TLH, and TLM type in NetBackup.

ACS, LSM, Panel, Drive

Specify the drive locations within an ACS robot.

The following information applies only to the ACS robot drive. The ACS property specifies the physical location of the drive within the robot. During installation, the correlation between the physical drive in the robot and the device file you specified earlier represents. You establish this correlation during installation.

The drive location properties are as follows:

  • ACS Number - specifies the index (in ACS library software terms) that identifies the robot that has this drive.

  • LSM Number - specifies the Library Storage Module that has this drive.

  • Panel Number - specifies the robot panel where this drive is located.

  • Drive Number - specifies the physical number of the drive (in ACS library software terms).

IBM device number

Specifies the IBM device number of the drive within the robot. This property applies only to the TLH robot drive.

DAS drive name

Specifies the DAS/SDLC drive name of the drive within the robot. This property applies only to the TLM robot drive.

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