|
Re: [Networker] Barcode labels - Questions!!
2008-07-21 11:27:09
Lancy Quadros wrote:
1. Is it good to buy pre-printed barcode labels or buy a printer?
That depends on whether you regard yourself as a backup system
administrator or as a tape monkey ;-) (at times in my career I have
wondered this about myself). If you can buy pre-printed labels or
better still buy the tapes pre-labelled, why go through the hassle of
printing and sticking hundreds or thousands of labels?
2. We currently have different label templates to identify the different
backups. For example Database backups are labeled as 'BK_PROD_DB.nnn'
and OS backups are labeled as 'BK_PROD_OS.nnn'. Are there ways in
Networker to maintain similar templates while using barcode labels for
example: for OS backups could be O123456 and database backups could be
P123456?
What benefit do you get from doing this? Does it help you find tapes to
restore? I would have thought that as you still need to refer to
NetWorker to say exactly what tapes are required then there is not much
point in trying to associate physical tape labels with their contents.
Will your system of templates scale as your backup environment expands
in complexity?
I find it best to just forget about pools and tape contents, and just go
with a meaningless series of barcodes. The exception is where you have
multiple backup servers or multiple sites off-siting to a common storage
facility, then it becomes useful to have barcodes that somehow associate
the tape with a backup server or site.
3. Advantages/disadvantages using barcode labels in general.
Try it - you won't go back.
4. Any known issues using barcode labels with Networker.
No. Probably a lot more issues around NOT using barcode labels with
NetWorker. The vast majority of NetWorker sites use barcodes, and for a
big environment I can't imagine not having them.
To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and type
"signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to networker-request
AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this list. You can access the
archives at http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER
|
|
|
