Skip to main content

What is the easiest way to copy data from a LTO 4 tape to a LTO 8

Both libs are available

Please be so kind and provide a step by step manual 

Hello @Knorr-Bremse 

 

If you are trying to use the tape to tape copy feature you will hit some issues with the drive requirements being in the same library. 

To keep this simple i would recommend creating a new copy in your Storage policy and config and Aux copy of the data from old to new. This will be the easiest way to achieve this. 

 

Kind regards

Albert Williams


would you be so kind and described in detail how to do this


Hello @Knorr-Bremse,

Please create new copy in Storage Policy which include the data from LTO4 tapes and create them bases on LTO8 library, very important to configure as source copy  library LTO4. Auxiliary Copy jobs should automatically started after that. Auto scheduler is trigger every 30 minutes. 

Regards, 

Michal 


As already mentioned, you can create another copy using the LTO8 library and run aux copy jobs to copy the data.

You can follow this documentation link to understand more about creating copy.

https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/additional_copies_of_backup_data.html

Please remember for every job that needs to be copied to the new tapes, if those are in different storage policies, then you’ll need to create separate copies in those storage policies.

 


As already mentioned, you can create another copy using the LTO8 library and run aux copy jobs to copy the data.

You can follow this documentation link to understand more about creating copy.

https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/additional_copies_of_backup_data.html

Please remember for every job that needs to be copied to the new tapes, if those are in different storage policies, then you’ll need to create separate copies in those storage policies.

 

Questions 😉 For “Please remember for every job that needs to be copied to the new tapes, if those are in different storage policies, then you’ll need to create separate copies in those storage policies”

If we have 10 different storage policies (say all writing to tapes today and in the past) and every old tape is “unknown” as to what storage policy/copy it came from….

  1. It would appear we would need to add/create another copy inside every storage policy, as we never know what tape we are adding to the library went with what storage policy...and then as we add the old tapes in CommVault auto-detects the storage policy the old tape was originally written as and then auto copies it using the proper “new” copy policy (according to the aux copy schedule that would need to be set up.. or we manually run the aux copy it for every batch of old tapes we load in?
  2. If we/someone deleted a storage policy, then we cannot copy those (ancient) tapes that were attached to it?
  3. If the old tapes were say 400 MB each, doing the aux-copy method will fill up the new (say 12 TB per tape) tapes all the way?  Assuming the current/new drives can read the 400 MB tape.
  4. A tape to tape copy (not discussed here) appears to delete/erase the data on the original tapes… does doing the aux-copy method leave the original tapes data alone/untouched (so we would have to manually erase and/or have them shredded)?  I also assume we would need to mark in commvault the old tapes were purged somehow

Reply