I'm in the process of automating offsite storage of the copypool and
database backups.

I can't find any description of what ADSM will do when I check the tapes
back into the library.

Currently it works like this;

I have a perl script that interrogates ADSM and generates a list of tapes
to go offsite.  These include both the copypool tapes and the ADSM database
backups.  The script then ejects each tape from our 9714 library and
updates a DBM hash file which keeps track of tapes that are offsite.

When the tapes are reclaimed, or the database backups expire (volhistory
deleted), they vanish from the ADSM database.  I detect this by comparing
the offsite tape list (DBM hash) against the active adsm tape list.  If
they don't appear in the active adsm list then I bring them back from
offsite.

What I'm not sure about is how do I check them back in to the library.  The
documentation seems to indicate that I can just check them ALL back in as
"scratch" and any that (by some chance) still have valid data, ie still in
the ADSM database, will be automagically changed to "data".  Is this
correct?

How are other people handling offsite backups with an automated library?


BTW, one of the reasons I'm doing this, instead of using DRM, is the poor
support ADSM has for getting multiple tapes out of the 9714 one at a time.
The 9714 cartridge access port can only handle 1 tape at a time.  I didn't
feel all that happy about having operators fish around inside the unit to
remove tapes directly from their slots, nor did I like the large amount of
typing required to remove cartridges one at a time.


Carl.