Scenario: We have been “pulling tapes” for years (literally opening the tape library and physically removing tapes, usually 60-80 at a time), Usually when they are full but not always 100% full. It was brought into question if doing this is going to have any consequences in (or to) CommVault as using “Export” for each tape appears to be the proper process. It appears “Export” on a tape triggers CommVault... to do some internal cleanup/workflow? and then it moves the tape to an export bay in the tape library for manual pickup. Note: Currently we do not re-use tapes, but soon we may be reusing them after their retention policy is met.
Questions:
Does manually pulling tapes out and not “exporting” them cause any issues in Commvault we may want to avoid?
Is there something we may want to “do” for all the years of tapes we have not exported them? (like possibly contact support to do CommVault database cleanup/mark exported, etc.)
If I mark for “export” 60 tapes all at once, but there are only 20 Export slots available for tapes to be put into does CommVault just keep moving tapes to the export slots as they “become available” (i.e. it moves 20 tapes and filles in all slots, we open the export bays and remove 20 tapes, then Commvault automatically puts another 20 in, etc.) or do we have to do 20 exports at a time, pull them, then do 20 more, etc.
Best answer by Onno van den Berg
The reason to initiate an export though VaultTracker is to coordinate the movement of media. You basically trigger an event to notify Commvault that you bring media offsite. This allows you to report which media is outside of the library and also when all jobs on media is aged. This allows you to create a report that can be used to pull back scratch media.
Does manually pulling tapes out and not “exporting” them cause any issues in Commvault we may want to avoid? No, it doesn't cause any issues. However, Commvault assumes the media is in the library.
Is there something we may want to “do” for all the years of tapes we have not exported them? (like possibly contact support to do CommVault database cleanup/mark exported, etc.) No, this is not required. You can update the location of media yourself and or perform an action to re-do the export.
If I mark for “export” 60 tapes all at once, but there are only 20 Export slots available for tapes to be put into does CommVault just keep moving tapes to the export slots as they “become available” (i.e. it moves 20 tapes and filles in all slots, we open the export bays and remove 20 tapes, then Commvault automatically puts another 20 in, etc.) or do we have to do 20 exports at a time, pull them, then do 20 more, etc. Yes, Commvault will automatically export all the tapes. Or, the library will perform this action. Commvault issues the command to the library and it knows how to handle it and Commvault keeps track of the changes.
The reason to initiate an export though VaultTracker is to coordinate the movement of media. You basically trigger an event to notify Commvault that you bring media offsite. This allows you to report which media is outside of the library and also when all jobs on media is aged. This allows you to create a report that can be used to pull back scratch media.
Does manually pulling tapes out and not “exporting” them cause any issues in Commvault we may want to avoid? No, it doesn't cause any issues. However, Commvault assumes the media is in the library.
Is there something we may want to “do” for all the years of tapes we have not exported them? (like possibly contact support to do CommVault database cleanup/mark exported, etc.) No, this is not required. You can update the location of media yourself and or perform an action to re-do the export.
If I mark for “export” 60 tapes all at once, but there are only 20 Export slots available for tapes to be put into does CommVault just keep moving tapes to the export slots as they “become available” (i.e. it moves 20 tapes and filles in all slots, we open the export bays and remove 20 tapes, then Commvault automatically puts another 20 in, etc.) or do we have to do 20 exports at a time, pull them, then do 20 more, etc. Yes, Commvault will automatically export all the tapes. Or, the library will perform this action. Commvault issues the command to the library and it knows how to handle it and Commvault keeps track of the changes.
