FWIW - unless it's just a very few tapes, I always forego the 'nsrjb -
w', 'nsrjb -d' dance and do the following:

nsrjb -u
open door, manually unload/load tapes, close door
nsrjb -HEv
nsrjb -Iv

The inventory sometimes takes a while but it's in the background so I don't
care.  (Many Friday evenings I have left w/ the inventory running and
return Monday with full success on backups.)

I have not had any problems with this process and have been doing it for
several years - using quantum/dlt and qualstar/ait-3 libraries with various
networker versions up to 6.1.3.  BTW - 6.1.3 is first networker version in
my experience to list AIT-3 tape type.

Chuck Davis
Army Medical Surveillance Activity
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Washington DC


On Tue, 10 Jun 2003 16:51:58 -0400, Stan Horwitz <stan AT TEMPLE DOT EDU> wrote:

>FYI:
>
>Does anyone on this list have some tips on how to more efficiently do tape
>library operations? Perhaps some of you on this list are confronted with
the
>same issue. Since we bought our Qualstar 412600 library with AIT-2 tape
>drives three years ago, our backup requirements have mushroomed. I am
looking
>at upgrading the library from AIT-2 to AIT-3, but that is a considerable
>expense so management here might balk.
>
>Currently, I spend several hours a week swapping out full tapes with tapes
>that are eligible for re-use.  We recently upgraded to NetWorker 6.1.3.
>Currently, I use "nsrjb -w" to withdraw tapes and individually remove them
>from our tape library's one-tape load port, then use "nsrjb -d" to
>individually load replacement tape cartridges into the library. This takes
a
>lot of time.
>
>In an earlier version of NetWorker, when we first bought our Qualstar
>library, I started out by managing tapes by manually opening the front door
>of the library, and replacing full tapes with eligible tapes without using
>nsrjb to withraw and deposit tapes; I would just reinventory the library
>after swapping out the tapes. I did not have to do this very often so it
took
>a little while before I realized that doing so was not a good idea. This
>practice caused NetWorker's media database to become outdated so I stopped
>doing that and I resorted to using "nsrjb". I am wondering if the practice
of
>manually loading/unloading tapes with NetWorker 6.1.3 would still present
>media database problems, or if there is some other more efficient way of
>swapping out tapes with this type of tape library.
>
>When we originally bought this tape library, we intended to keep three
months
>worth of data online in the library. Now, I shoot to keep one week's worth
of
>data in the library, although we still have a lot of data on tape in the
>library that's many months old. I usually swap out about 15 to 20 AIT-2
tapes
>every other day.
>
>I also understand that the current firmware revision 2.20 for the Qualstar
>412600 library supports a virtual load port. I just submittede paperwork to
>order the EPROM chips for that revision. We have revision 2.12 in our
library
>now.  I am wondering if anyone has tried allocating one or two 10-slot tape
>cradles within the library for use as a virtual load port and what your
>experience is in doing so. The down side is it would reduce storage
capacity
>in the library a bit, but I am hoping the operational time savings would be
>worth that sacrifice.
>
>Any comments on this issue will be appreciated.
>
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