We have been using pre-printed barcode labels for several years now and
I wouldn't want to go back.  The only issue was when the library's
barcode reader went on the fritz and had to be replaced.

What we did was buy a series of 600 labels and define ranges of them for
specific pools.  We have 4 pools we use, Backup, Backup Clone, Backup
Special (for month end and other archival backups) & Backup Special
Clone.  So tapes XXX000-XXX099 are for the Backup pool, 100-199 are for
Backup Clone, etc.  That way it's easy to tell what pool the tape is in
by looking at the label.  I do manually label the tapes to keep them in
order but that takes about 20 minutes of my time once a week.

It works for us.

Dave Werth
Garmin AT, Inc.
Salem, Oregon
-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 8:23 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Barcode labels - Questions!!

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.

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