Networker

Re: [Networker] Migrating savesets from VTL to tape - making virtual tapes recyclable?

2007-04-05 05:46:48
Subject: Re: [Networker] Migrating savesets from VTL to tape - making virtual tapes recyclable?
From: Davina Treiber <DavinaTreiber AT PEEVRO.CO DOT UK>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 10:42:10 +0100
Brian O'Neill wrote:

Davina Treiber wrote:


How will the virtual tapes get recycled? I presume I need to have auto media management activated. Will it automatically re-use a virtual tape when needed? Any other settings I need to use? They aren't marked as recyclable (yet at least), and still retain their original expiration dates.

You don't need to have AMM enabled. Read the manual and find out what AMM does. AMM is ONLY concerned with labelling new tapes in your library. Relabelling tapes that have already been made recyclable is core NetWorker functionality that always happens unless you have set some tapes to manual.

Do I need a script to mark all the volumes recyclable as needed?


No you don't. NetWorker always does this.


Perhaps I didn't word my question well. Yes, I did forget that AMM was for labelling unlabelled tapes. I think I was thinking of a different problem I had in the past.

There is a common misconception about what AMM does and I get rather accustomed to pointing this out, sorry about that.


I know that Networker will automatically mark the tapes recyclable WHEN THEY EXPIRE. However, the virtual tapes seem to be retaining their original expirations (three months from now) after the nsrstage operation. I need them to become recyclable after the nsrstage operation so they can be re-used as needed since I don't have three months worth of VTL storage.


Ah now I understand what you are trying to do. There are two scenarios here depending on your NW server version.

7.2.x and below: All clones of a save set have the same retention and status in terms of being recyclable. You cannot make one clone recyclable without making all other clones recyclable also. However you can recycle one of the clone volumes manually from a script, and that is what you would need to do in this case.

7.3 and above: Clones have independent retention. As I have so far been avoiding 7.3 (for various reasons) I am not 100% sure of how this is implemented, but I assume you can set a different retention for a particular clone using the nsrmm command, and I think there is also some mechanism to control retentions based on pools. Maybe someone can fill in more details of what is available here - e.g. perhaps you can specify a different retention when you run nsrclone?

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