CA GREEN BOOKS. CA ARCserve Media Management

Transcription

1 CA GREEN BOOKS CA ARCserve Media Management

2 LEGAL NOTICE This publication is based on current information and resource allocations as of its date of publication and is subject to change or withdrawal by CA at any time without notice. The information in this publication could include typographical errors or technical inaccuracies. CA may make modifications to any CA product, software program, method or procedure described in this publication at any time without notice. Any reference in this publication to non-ca products and non-ca websites are provided for convenience only and shall not serve as CA s endorsement of such products or websites. Your use of such products, websites, and any information regarding such products or any materials provided with such products or at such websites shall be at your own risk. Notwithstanding anything in this publication to the contrary, this publication shall not (i) constitute product documentation or specifications under any existing or future written license agreement or services agreement relating to any CA software product, or be subject to any warranty set forth in any such written agreement; (ii) serve to affect the rights and/or obligations of CA or its licensees under any existing or future written license agreement or services agreement relating to any CA software product; or (iii) serve to amend any product documentation or specifications for any CA software product. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described in this publication remain at CA s sole discretion. The information in this publication is based upon CA s experiences with the referenced software products in a variety of development and customer environments. Past performance of the software products in such development and customer environments is not indicative of the future performance of such software products in identical, similar or different environments. CA does not warrant that the software products will operate as specifically set forth in this publication. CA will support only the referenced products in accordance with (i) the documentation and specifications provided with the referenced product, and (ii) CA s then-current maintenance and support policy for the referenced product. Certain information in this publication may outline CA s general product direction. All information in this publication is for your informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the extent permitted by applicable law, CA provides this document AS IS without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, lost investment, business interruption, goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly advised of the possibility of such damages. COPYRIGHT LICENSE AND NOTICE: This publication may contain sample application programming code and/or language which illustrate programming techniques on various operating systems. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this publication, such sample code does not constitute licensed products or software under any CA license or services agreement. You may copy, modify and use this sample code for the purposes of performing the installation methods and routines described in this document. These samples have not been tested. CA does not make, and you may not rely on, any promise, express or implied, of reliability, serviceability or function of the sample code. Copyright 2007 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Principal Authors Mid-Market and Storage BU

3 Contents Chapter 1: Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview 5 Tape History... 6 Tape Technology... 6 Tape Media... 7 Tape Drives... 7 Tape Libraries... 8 Virtual Tape Libraries... 9 Advantages of using VTLs Disk History Disk Technology Disk Terminology Backup Utilities CA ARCserve Architecture CA ARCserve Components CA ARCserve Backup Manager CA ARCserve Backup Server CA ARCserve Agent Command Line Interface Chapter 2: Disk and Tape Usage 17 Media Capacity Tape Media Performance Media Operations How Devices Interact with Operating Systems Windows Operating System UNIX and Linux Operating Systems Chapter 3: CA ARCserve Tape Management 23 Bar Code Support Import and Export Inventory Encryption How a Backup Operation Works How a Restore Operation Works Compression Media Magazines How to Manage Media Magazines Cleaning Media Offsite Certified Devices List Chapter 4: File System Devices 29 How File System Device Configuration Works Configure File System Devices Configure Remote File System Devices Add Multiple File System Devices to a Common Device Group CA ARCserve Media Management 3

4 Chapter 5: Disk Staging in CA ARCserve Backup for Windows 41 Disk Staging Requirements How Disk Staging Works Configure Disk Staging Chapter 6: Media Pools and Tape Rotation 47 Media Pools Save Sets Scratch Sets Media Pool Attributes Types of Media Pools GFS Media Pools Rotation Media Pools User-Defined Media Pools Media Pool Manager Scenario Chapter 7: Vaulting 59 Terminology Scenario Tapecopy with Media Management How To Put Tapecopy Tapes into the Vault in Media Management Administrator Vaulting in UNIX Create an MMO Vault Create a Schedule Create a Vault Criteria Descriptor (VCD) Create a Rotation Schedule MMO Schedule Setup Completed Vaulting in Windows Media Management Administrator Create an MMO Vault Create a Schedule Create a Vault Criteria Descriptor (VCD) Create a Rotation Start the Vaulting Process Media Management Reports FAQs Appendix A: Tape Devices 77 Tape Technologies Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) Digital Linear Tape (DLT) Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Tape Library Technologies Media Device Sharing Appendix B: Understanding RAID 81 Index 83 4 Contents

5 Chapter 1: Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview Storage management is a gigantic task that every company in the industry is grappling with today. The storage requirements for small to enterprise-level companies range from anywhere between gigabytes to petabytes. The primary concern of all the modern enterprises today is to ensure that the data necessary to drive critical business processes is backed up timely and properly. In addition to storage and retrieval capabilities, companies also need to comply with government rules and regulations to preserve and maintain data. Though there are many storage devices available in the market today, tapes and disks are the most commonly used media for storing data. Tapes are most commonly used due to their portability, low cost, and high reliability. Conversely, disks and virtual tape libraries (VTL) are mostly used where speed is critical to drive the business. The purpose of the CA ARCserve Media Management Green Book is to provide detailed information pertaining to media management. The first part of this book gives you an overview of tape media, tape libraries, virtual tape libraries (VTLs), and disks. The latter part of this book discusses tape management and media management in CA ARCserve. CA ARCserve media management supports Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) to manage data. RTO indicates how quickly you can recover data in case of a disaster. RPO indicates how far back in time you can go to recover data, whether it's a week, a month, or a year. For information about using Tapecopy, see the chapter "Disk Staging in CA ARCserve Backup for Windows." For information on how CA ARCserve achieves RPO, see the chapter "Media Pools and Tape Rotation." For information on how CA ARCserve achieves RTO, see the chapter "Vaulting." CA ARCserve Media Management 5

6 Tape History Tape History The introduction of the IBM 726 Tape Unit in 1952 marked a historic shift between the mechanical, punch card-based calculators of the time, and the electronic computers of today. Source: IBM Archives Improvements in tape technology have provided superior performance, functionality, and storage capacity. The physical size of tape units has also decreased over time. Despite other improved technologies, tape media remains the backbone of many storage-related strategies, from data archiving to legal requirements. Tapes fit the storage management requirements because of their desirable features. Tapes can be stored off-site for disaster recovery; more tape drives and cartridges can be added for scalability. Tapes are generally faster and reliable. Tapes meet compliance requirements and have a lower cost of ownership. Tape Technology A tape is a long thin plastic strip magnetically coated with iron oxide. Data is stored or written to tape for retrieval at another point in time. Tape technology can be divided into the following main areas: Tape Media (tape cartridges) Tape Drives (physical drives) Tape Libraries (multiple tape drives) 6 Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview

7 Tape Technology Tape Media Media refers to objects that are capable of storing data, such as hard drives, USB drives, CDs, DVDs and tapes. Tape media refers to a magnetically coated, continuous plastic strip used to store data for later retrieval. Tape media is sealed into specially designed media cartridges that protect the tape from varying environmental conditions such as dust or smoke that could damage or potentially erase the data stored on the tape. These media cartridges are used in tape drives to store and retrieve data. Media cartridges are designed for different tape drive architectures. Each architecture has different storage capacities and access/mount times. The throughput speed for read/write varies across these different tape drive technologies. The appendix "Tape Devices" provides information on various types of backup media. Tape Drives Tape drives are devices that read data from and write data to tape. Tape drives have varying technology architectures that address the differing needs for size, capacity, performance, cost and reliability. Typically, tape drive technologies comprise of the types of tapes: Helical Scan Tapes Helical scan tapes interact with tape drives consisting of a rotating head that is positioned at a certain angle to the tape. Data is read or written in diagonal stripes across the width of the tape. Linear Tapes Linear tapes use a stationary head to read or write data along the length of the tape. Helical tape drives include the following devices: CA ARCserve Media Management 7

8 Tape Technology Digital Data Storage (DDS) Reads or writes data to 4mm wide digital audio tape (DAT) cartridges. There are five generations of DDS format capable of storing 2 GB, 8 GB, 24 GB, 36 GB, or 72 GB of data to a single DAT cartridge (with compression). Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) Reads or writes data to 8mm wide AIT tape cartridges. AIT cartridges can store up to 400 GB of data (compressed), while AIT tape drives can transfer data up to 48 Mbps (with compression). Travan Standardized by the Quarter Inch Cartridge (QIC) Consortium, Travan offers several iterations. The latest Travan media capacities include 20 GB and 40 GB (compressed) storage capacities. Linear head tape drives include the following devices: Digital Linear Tape (DLT) Records data along a series of 128 or 1280 data tracks; uses a specific compression technology DLZ1 to store data on the tape. DLT cartridges can hold up to 160 GB of uncompressed data; SuperDLT (DLT-S) cartridges can support to 800 GB of uncompressed data. DLT drives can transfer data up to 60 Mbps. Linear Tape-Open (LTO) This open-standard linear tape technology is continuously evolving with existing and planned future generations. For example, LTO third generation (LTO-3) tape media capacity can store up to 400 GB of uncompressed data with transfer rates of 80 Mbps (up to 160 Mbps compressed). Tape drives require routine maintenance. This is due to the fact that the tape comes into direct contact with the tape drive head. Over time, the tape drive head will accumulate some magnetic material from either the tape itself or from dirt and dust. Tape drives are sequential-access devices and as such, to read a particular block of data, all the preceding blocks of data must also be read. This makes the tape drive a particularly slow device for reading data, a disadvantage which causes businesses to consider data storage solutions other than tape. Note: CA ARCserve has an extensive list of supported tape libraries and tape library vendors available from the ARCserve Certified Devices List (CDL). Tape Libraries Tape drives can only read or write to a single media cartridge at a time. Usually, when the tape cartridge in the tape drive has reached the storage capacity of the media cartridge, the tape media is ejected and a new tape cartridge is inserted. 8 Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview

9 Virtual Tape Libraries To overcome such a physical task, especially if that task is repeated many times, you can automate such cartridge "swapping" using a physical device called a tape library. A tape library is a physical device with multiple tape drives and tape cartridges arranged in media slots. A tape library not only automates the media cartridge swapping but also extends the total capacity available for data storage. The media cartridge swapping is enabled with the use of a robotic mechanism. The robot can find and select specific tape cartridges, insert and remove media cartridges to and from media slot locations and tape drives, import and export media cartridges from the tape library and perform an inventory of the media cartridges and tape drives in the tape library. These tape libraries also have specific media utilities to assist in the management, reporting, and logging of the media activities in the tape library. Virtual Tape Libraries Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL) are dedicated appliances that consist of a CPU, application software, and a RAID-based array of disk drives. These components are usually bundled by a vendor into a single VTL, however, you can also purchase them separately. The purpose of each component is as follows: CPU A central processing unit (CPU) consisting of hardware combined with an operating system to run the application software. Application Software The Application software emulates a tape library and tape drives. Disk Array A disk array is the location where the data is stored. The main reason for a VTL's existence is to emulate a tape library and tape drives. To achieve this, the VTL can be either installed as a "default Tape Library" or configured to emulate certain libraries, drives, or both, drives before installing the VTL into the CA ARCserve environment. After the installation is complete, the CA ARCserve Tape Engine detects and configures the VTL as a normal tape library. Because of this, CA ARCserve media management is as for a normal tape library. However, the administrator must understand that the media management being performed by CA ARCserve is, in fact, taking place on a RAID-protected disk array. CA ARCserve Media Management 9

10 Disk History Advantages of using VTLs VTLs are designed and developed to optimize your existing backup environment and increase efficiency. The advantages of VTLs are as follows: The VTL is much faster, though it looks and behaves like a tape library. Adding capacity to a VTL is simple and inexpensive. Tape drives wear out more frequently and with more impact than disk. VTLs are set up in RAID configurations, so if a disk goes bad, data is not lost. When tapes go bad, the data is normally lost. This results in two positive gains less data loss and zero chances of tape failure. VTLs meet the RTO and RPO requirements better than tape drives. You can restore from disk (depending on the capacity) for a timeframe even when the tape is offsite. Using VTLs helps reduce tape administration and expense. VTLs offer high success rate for backups. Also, data from disk is quicker and more efficient to restore. Disk History Over the past 50 years, the hard disk has evolved from 24-inch diameter disks that stored what was considered at that time, a large amount of data. For example, in 1956, a disk stored 5,000,000 bytes, or 5 MB of data. Today's 2.5 inch drive can store from 400 MB to 500 GB of data. Since the development of the first hard disk, engineers have strived to improve the reliability, capacity, speed, power consumption, compression technologies, and form factors. There are a number of resources and references on the history of disk, how a hard disk works, key components, operations, technologies and developments. These can be obtained from Internet searches, such as Google, public domain, such as Wikipedia, and the Computer Museum History Center to public libraries. One such source available on the Internet is the PC Guide. We encourage you to refer to these sources for more information. 10 Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview

11 Disk Technology Disk Technology Though there are many disk technologies available in the market, this green book will focus only on the generic types of disk. Stand-alone Disks Stand-alone disks are simple, non-array disks that do not use Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technologies at the hardware level. Combined simple disks in storage towers or racks are known by the acronym of JBOD (just a bunch of disks). The individual disks do not have their own Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connector; there is a shared path and one controller. Stand-alone disks are usually the least expensive storage devices, as there are usually no provisions for fault tolerance or redundancy. Mirrored JBODs are possible with vendor hardware and software solutions. Disk Arrays Disk arrays are more than a collection of disks. While residing in common enclosures, each disk has its own controller. Typically, RAID is implemented with disk arrays, either at the hardware or software level. The result is that each disk array can appear to the operating system as one large disk, or by using SCSI LUNs (Logical Unit Number), as several large disks. Solid State Disks Solid state disks are storage devices that use non-volatile or volatile, solid state memory to store data. Solid state disks are often used as alternatives for hard disk drives, but have a significantly smaller capacity than that of hard disk drives. Disk Terminology This section discusses the basic hard disk terminology: Rotation Describes how the disks spin. Low-level Formatting Establishes the tracks and sectors on platters. CA ARCserve Media Management 11

12 Backup Utilities Platter-Individual Disk Refers to a disk drive that consists of several platters. Track Refers to the circle of recorded data on a single recording surface. Sector Tracks are further divided into sectors. Cylinder In a multi-head drive, all the tracks under the heads for a given arm position can be read without seek delay. The operating system treats the contents of those tracks as a single cylinder. Head Refers to the device that reads and writes the information. The head can read data using either magnetic or optical technology. Arm Refers to the mechanical assembly that supports the heads as they move in and out. Seek Time Refers to the average time needed to move the heads to a new track. Rotational Delay Refers to the average time required to position the head on the desired track and sector. Backup Utilities As tape media, disks, drives and libraries are generally used to store data, so the backup utilities perform the task of transferring the data from a source to a destination. Backup software assists the storage administrator with automating backup tasks, speedy file-level restores, and disaster recovery. There are two types of backup utilities available hardware and software. Hardware backup utilities are often vendor-specific and generally work best with the hardware equipment and physical devices from the same vendor. Software backup utilities generally work with any physical tape media, disks, drive, library, or optical media. Extensive tests are often carried out by the backup software vendors to ensure compatibility and error-free backup and restore operations. 12 Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview

13 CA ARCserve Architecture CA ARCserve is a software-based backup utility that greatly assists and improves a storage administrator's daily tasks by automating and scheduling backups, monitoring and alerting on backup events and providing reporting on all backup events. CA ARCserve Architecture The following diagram depicts the CA ARCserve high-level architecture. At the top is the CA ARCserve Manager, which controls all GUI operations. From the manager you can schedule jobs and options, configure devices, run reports, look at logs and manage media. The CA ARCserve Manager can be installed on a Windows 200x host, or a Windows XP host to aid in remote administration. The CA ARCserve Server is the heart of the system. It controls all the major communication between the software API layer and the hardware layer. The three main services are: CA ARCserve Media Management 13

14 CA ARCserve Components Job Engine The Job Engine or Job Queue handles all the job scheduling. Tape Engine The Tape Engine controls all the hardware communication between the API and the Tape Device, or File System Device. Database Engine The Database Engine is where all of the backup jobs' history is recorded. This allows you to view a previous backup job and browse through an OS file system, database and Groupware recovery points. CA ARCserve Components CA ARCserve consists of the following main components: CA ARCserve Backup Manager CA ARCserve Backup Server CA ARCserve Agent Command Line Interface The following sections describe each of these components. CA ARCserve Backup Manager Use the CA ARCserve Backup Manager (GUI) to submit your backup and restore jobs, manage your database, and search reports. You can install the CA ARCserve Backup Manager on the same machine as the CA ARCserve Backup Server, or on a different machine, such as a Windows 2000 or Windows XP workstation. Note: For more information, see the CA ARCserve Backup for Windows Administrator Guide. CA ARCserve Backup Server The CA ARCserve Backup Server schedules backup and recovery options. It manages the transfer of data to, from, and between backup devices (CD-R, DVD-R, tape drives, disks, tape libraries, and hard drives). Data from servers and applications can be backed up to any of these devices. Data can also be copied between any of the media types to allow the following scenarios: Back up to disk (fast restore) and copy to tape (disaster recovery, regulatory compliance, and so on) 14 Media Management and CA ARCserve Overview

15 CA ARCserve Components Back up to tape (keep a local copy) and copy or consolidate to another tape (disaster recovery, regulatory compliance, and so on) Note: For more information, see the CA ARCserve Backup for Windows Administrator Guide. CA ARCserve Agent The CA ARCserve Agent works with the CA ARCserve Backup Server to back up data in files, databases, Exchange servers, and so on. This agent runs on the machine on which the application or the data to be backed up resides. There is a specific agent for each of the clients (such as UNIX, Windows, and NetWare) and applications. Command Line Interface CA ARCserve has a rich set of command line utilities that can be run either locally or remotely to perform different operations like submitting backup jobs, managing the queues, querying the database, and so on. CA ARCserve Media Management 15

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17 Chapter 2: Disk and Tape Usage This chapter introduces you to disk and tape terminology and the operations that you can perform using disks and tapes. The operating system support for interacting with the tapes is also discussed briefly at the end of this chapter. Media Capacity The following terms describe the media capacity of disks and tapes: Tapes Most tape formats support some level of compression. Most of the tape formats support a 2:1 compression ratio whereas others support 2.6:1 or other ratios. For information on the capacities of the tape formats supported by CA ARCserve, see the table in the section "Tape Media Performance (see page 18)." Disk Arrays Typical hard disk arrays might have up to 15 disks; each disk having a typical capacity of 500 GB. That equates to a disk array capacity of 7.5Tb, generally considered suitable for different types of data protection required by businesses. With this type of capacity to handle, the array could be broken up into two manageable LUNs of 3.5Tb each. One LUN might be put to use to protect user data, the other LUN might be to protect a database or system. Disk capacities continue to grow to meet the demand by businesses for increased online capacity. CA ARCserve Media Management 17

18 Tape Media Performance Tape Media Performance The following table lists the capacities of the tape formats supported by CA ARCserve. Media Operations The following are the most commonly performed media operations and commands. Back up Data Refers to the process of archiving source data to tape media, disk, or optical media for the protection of business processes. Restore Data Refers to the process of retrieving archived data from the backup media, usually to recover lost or corrupted data. 18 Disk and Tape Usage

19 Media Operations Format Media Refers to the process of formatting backup media for use with backup software. Formatting erases any pre-existing data on the media. Merge Data Refers to the process of importing backup session information to the ARCserve database. If session information is not imported into the ARCserve database at the end of the backup job, you can optionally merge the session details before you restore the data. With the merge operation, you can merge a single session, all sessions, or a range of sessions from the selected media. Erase Media Refers to the process of removing backup data from storage media. Write-protected media will be indicated in the backup application and cannot be erased. A slot that is defined to contain cleaning media will not appear at all. Note: In Windows, this slot is defined as a cleaning slot. If a cleaning tape is in the library and is not identified either in the library or in CA ARCserve, then it will be listed as Unreadable Media. Retension Media Refers to the process of ensuring that a tape is evenly wound and properly tensioned. Tape tends to become uneven and lose on the spools after multiple uses. A tape which is not properly tensioned can be prone to errors; for example, the tape may jam or break. Compress Media Refers to the process of reducing the size of the data on the media. With compressed data, you save space on media and reduce transmission time through your network. The compression ratio is determined by the technology and the type of data being backing up. For example, database files are usually highly compressible. However, documents and multimedia files (for example, audio files, videos, and images) usually have some native compression already built in, so they will not compress further when written to compressible media. Tapecopy Utility Refers to the CA ARCserve utility that lets you make logical, media-to-media copies at the session level, or of two different types of media. You can use the Tapecopy utility to copy sessions to write once, read many (WORM) media. Eject Media Refers to the process of removing media from a drive, which prevents further writing. You can also set an option within the backup job to automatically eject the media at the end of the job. CA ARCserve Media Management 19

20 How Devices Interact with Operating Systems How Devices Interact with Operating Systems The following sections discuss the device interaction in the Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems. Windows Operating System After the miniport driver is installed, Windows operating systems use the SCSI port driver that comes with Microsoft Windows. The Microsoft SCSI port driver covers common functionality shared by all SCSI drivers, so that SCSI card vendors can concentrate on implementing the features relevant to their own hardware. Clients may have installed the Storport drivers for such benefits as redundancy to hard drives. Backup software should be able to either use the Storport drivers or use pass-through commands to communicate directly with the miniport, if necessary. One characteristic of the SCSI architecture is that it was designed for optimal throughput for operations that involve large data transfers (such as mass file copies, video/audio capture, data backup, and so on). For this reason, the SCSI cards have their own processor to move the data without requiring OS involvement. There is minimal to no use of the server's CPU to preserve CPU cycles for important applications such as the mail system and databases. UNIX and Linux Operating Systems On the UNIX or Linux operating systems, CA ARCserve uses the standard operating system drivers with a few exceptions: The process of finding and accessing the tape devices and changers requires that the server can see all devices in a library at all times. All communication with tape drives and tape libraries will use a SCSI pass-through technology after locking the device from system use. This means that you cannot use these devices with system commands like tar and dd while CA ARCserve is running. The SAN option extends this same idea but can cause problems as we do not use SCSI persistence to lock drive on a SAN. This means that only CA ARCserve servers in a SAN can access these devices to avoid issues with sharing these devices across a SAN. Camediad is a CA ARCserve application, or daemon, that handles the transfer of data to and from media. It is responsible for communicating with the tape devices to perform various device operations (for example, creation, modification, deletion of groups, assignment of media to a group, and so on), media operations (for example, format, erase, import, export, and so on), and backup and restore operations to tape media, FSDs (file system devices), optical devices, and so on. To know the background process in the camediad application better, you can run the cstatus command and view the actual PID s used for media access. The number of PID s 20 Disk and Tape Usage

21 How Devices Interact with Operating Systems will vary based on the number of tape devices (both physical tape drives and file system tape devices) registered with ARCserve. The first two PID s are used for the main and callback processes. The remaining PID s are used for each individual tape device. For example, if you have four real tape devices and two file system tape devices, you will see a total of eight PID s for camediad after it is fully initialized. Each of these tape device PID s will be used during tape drive actions such as backup or restore. The following list identifies the proper method for accessing tape and library devices for each operating system: AIX CA ARCserve uses the AIX standard tape driver for all tape devices on the IBM AIX platform. The AIX driver creates an rmt device file. The numbers after the letters rmt identify additional descriptions like the low-level format of the drive or if compression should be enabled. If the IBM Atape driver is used with an IBM tape library, then these devices may also contain an additional extension that relates the drive to its specific library. For example,.smc0 would point a drive to the first library in the system. For accessing tape libraries, CA ARCserve uses the IBM Atape driver provided the driver supports that tape library. If the library is not an IBM library or if the fiber card it connects with does not have an IBM BIOS, then the CA ARCserve cha driver must be used and the Atape drive must not be present on the system. HP-UX CA ARCserve uses the sctl HP driver for all tape devices on the HP-UX platform. Note: Previous versions of CA ARCserve allowed the spt driver when the tape drive was attached to an older on-board SCSI card. Linux CA ARCserve uses the sg driver for all tape drives and libraries on a Linux machine. You must ensure that the sg driver is installed and can view all tape and library devices. To verify that all devices are seen properly, use the command: Solaris cat /proc/scsi/scsi CA ARCserve used the Solaris st driver to access tape devices and tape libraries on the Solaris platform. The only time manual manipulation of configuration files may be required is if the sgen driver is installed and used to access tape devices in a SAN environment. For more information, contact CA Technical Support ( CA ARCserve Media Management 21

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23 Chapter 3: CA ARCserve Tape Management This chapter explains the various options that can be performed on tape and tape libraries with regard to CA ARCserve. These options help you figure out how to clean the drives and how to use compression and encryption. This chapter also explains how you can add and remove tapes from a tape library. Bar Code Support CA ARCserve supports the use of bar codes on tapes used for backups. All large libraries, and most small libraries, consist of a robot, also known as a bar code reader, that scans all tapes in the library slots. The bar code information is relayed to and stored in the CA ARCserve database. CA ARCserve uses the bar code data to identify the location of tape media. This information becomes critical as the life of the tape progresses through multiple backup and restore events. The data stored in the tape is directly associated with the bar code number of the tape. When tapes are vaulted offsite, the bar code numbers are used for ongoing tracking. Restore operations reference the bar code number of a tape. Import and Export Many libraries have Cartridge Access Ports (often referred to as the CAP) which are used to add and remove tapes from a library. As tapes are used, exporting can be automated such that the tapes to be taken offsite are automatically exported to the CAP, and are removed by the tape management team the following morning. The next logical step would be for the same person to import new tapes to be inducted into the media management cycle. In the best case scenario, the administrator would always use the CAP to import and export tapes to and from the library. However, this is often not the most timely or efficient means available, which brings us to the next section Inventory. Inventory The ability to inventory a library is essential, as many administrators do not have the time to import and export tapes the correct way. Rather than using the CAP to pull 10 tapes out at a time, the administrator might open the library door and manually remove and insert tapes. When this happens (as is quite common), the CA ARCserve database does not know about the tapes that have been manually removed and inserted. The database, therefore, is in an inconsistent state. CA ARCserve Media Management 23

24 Encryption When the database is in an inconsistent state, you may encounter many errors. You can avoid these by performing a library inventory. By inventorying the library, CA ARCserve scans all bar codes in the library and updates its internal database accordingly. Encryption The intelligent client-to-server data encryption feature of CA ARCserve enhances your network security by encrypting data packets transported during a backup job with a session password. This feature ensures that transported or archived data is secure and password protected, and assures both the privacy of data transmitted over the network and the security of your backup media. Tapes cannot be misused or restored by users who do not have the encryption key. When you choose this feature, your backup data is encrypted. This includes data packets that are transported between the client and the server, data that resides on the local server and data that has been moved to backup media. When you specify data encryption, CA ARCserve uses 168-bit 3DES encryption to back up files. The following sections describe how backup and restore operations work when encryption is utilized. How a Backup Operation Works The following steps describe how a backup operation works: To encrypt your backup data, select Backup Media from the Options tab of the backup job. Select the Encrypt option and add a Session/Encryption Password that will be used as the unique encryption key. CA ARCserve encrypts the backup data at the client agent machine before transferring the data to the backup server. The data will be written to tape in the same encrypted format. Encrypted data cannot be compressed by the tape drive, so if you need to compress the encrypted data you must select the compression option as well. To use software compression you need to format the tape without compression. For more information, see Compression (see page 25). How a Restore Operation Works The following steps describe how a restore operation works: After selecting the sessions that you want to restore, you must enter the encryption password. CA ARCserve verifies the session password with the one that was provided during the backup encryption. 24 CA ARCserve Tape Management

25 Compression When the job starts running, CA ARCserve reads the job file and decrypts the encryption password for each backup session. All sessions from a single backup use the same encryption password. If the backup session is restored through a client agent, the data traversing the network is still encrypted until decrypted by the client agent. Compression If the compression global option is selected, CA ARCserve checks the target backup media to see if hardware compression is enabled. If hardware compression is enabled, the compression option flag in the job script is turned off, and CA ARCserve allows the hardware to take care of the data compression. If hardware compression is not enabled, the backup module uses software compression (using a GNU algorithm) to compress the data before sending it to the backup media. Media Magazines Small Tape Library/Auto Loaders are usually equipped with removable tape magazines. The size and number of the magazines can vary from vendor to vendor depending on how many slots the unit is configured with. This feature allows easy media addition, removal, storage and transport. How to Manage Media Magazines Use the Mount/Dismount option to load or remove a magazine from the library. Mounting a magazine initiates an inventory of the slots in the magazine. Dismounting a magazine returns all media to their home slots and prepares the magazine for removal. The time taken by this process will vary according to the number of media in the magazine you are mounting or dismounting. Note: Magazines must be mounted before library operations can start. You must dismount magazines before you physically remove them. Cleaning Media A contaminated tape drive is usually discovered when you are running a backup job. A significant number of tape drive and media errors can be resolved by cleaning the tape drive. If a cleaning tape is installed in the tape cleaning slot specified during setup, CA ARCserve can perform drive cleaning during a job. You can also specify a cleaning schedule. If no schedule is specified, CA ARCserve defaults to a 100-hour period between scheduled tape cleaning operations. CA ARCserve Media Management 25

26 Offsite When CA ARCserve detects a contaminated tape drive during a backup job, and a cleaning slot is configured, CA ARCserve automatically performs the following actions: If CA ARCserve detects a write error during a backup, and the symptoms relate to a contaminated tape drive or media, a second attempt is made to write to the tape drive. If the second write attempt fails, the tape drive is cleaned if one or more of the following conditions exist: > The tape drive has never been cleaned. > DLTSage detected the need to clean the tape drive, and drive usage exceeds one fourth of the scheduled cleaning. > The tape drive usage exceeds one-third of the cleaning. > The ForceClean tape drive option is specified. If CA ARCserve then determines that a tape drive must be cleaned to continue a job, the following actions take place: > CA ARCserve pauses the job. > The library returns the tape to its home slot and locks the tape drive. > CA ARCserve directs the cleaning operation. > The library reloads the tape into the cleaned drive and aligns the tape with the buffer. > CA ARCserve resumes the job. Offsite The term offsite refers to the act of removing tapes from the backup facility and transporting them to a secure location. From this location, they can be retrieved in the event of an emergency or even a disaster recovery exercise. The process of tracking the tapes while they are offsite is called vaulting. An entire chapter is devoted to this subject in this book. Certified Devices List The CA ARCserve Certified Device List (CDL) is where you can check that your backup devices are certified to work with CA ARCserve. The CDL contains an extensive list of devices that have been specifically certified to work with different components within CA ARCserve. If you have specific hardware issues, check the CDL to verify that the device you have is certified. Devices can usually be verified by their model and firmware revision. You can find the CDL on the CA Support site at ( 26 CA ARCserve Tape Management

27 Certified Devices List Note: Since the CDL is updated often, see the copy on the CA Support site whenever you are verifying devices. CA ARCserve Media Management 27

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29 Chapter 4: File System Devices A File System Device (FSD) is a storage space on the spindle which can be used as a staging device or final destination. An FSD provides the benefit of using a large disk or disk array as a backup resource. Alternately, a local hard disk or a local disk array or a SAN attached disk array can be used as a file system device. Using an FSD has multiple advantages. The prominent ones being reduction of the backup window, faster and more reliable restores, elimination of the tape media challenge, co-existence with the existing media strategy and using disk-based backups with offsite tape media for long term or disaster recovery policies. This chapter discusses the creation of file system devices in CA ARCserve. How File System Device Configuration Works To take advantage of disks made available for the purpose of data protection, you must configure the FSDs based on the hardware vendor specifications, before you add or mount the FSDs to the operating system. After FSDs are ready for use by the operating system, you must configure the FSDs for backup and restore operations using Device Configuration. The following section describes how to configure FSDs for backup and restore operations. Configure File System Devices The following section describes how to configure file system devices for backup and restore operations. To configure file system devices CA ARCserve Media Management 29

30 Configure File System Devices 1. Start Device Configuration. 2. Click Next. 3. Select the File System Devices radio button and click Next. 30 File System Devices

31 Configure File System Devices If the Tape Engine service is currently running, Device Configuration will ask if it can be stopped to continue. If you are sure that you have no backup or restore jobs in progress, click Yes to continue and stop the tape engine. When the tape engine has stopped you will be presented with the screen below, where you can configure File System Devices. CA ARCserve Media Management 31

32 Configure File System Devices 4. Click Add to configure a new File System Device. 32 File System Devices

33 Configure File System Devices Complete the following fields. File Device Name This is the device name that will appear in the Device Manager GUI. Note: The File Device Name cannot contain spaces. Description A Description of the file system device (can be anything you choose). Location Click the arrow (>) and specify the location for the file system device: CA ARCserve Media Management 33

34 Configure File System Devices Specify the location for the file system device: You can select an existing directory or create a new one using the dialog above. After you create or select the location for the file system device, click Select to continue. 34 File System Devices

35 Configure Remote File System Devices 5. Click Finish, or you can add more file system devices depending on the type of Jobs you are going to set up. There are different requirements for GFS and non-gfs, rotation and non-rotation jobs. See the CA ARCserve Backup for Windows Administrator Guide for further details. Configure Remote File System Devices You can add remote file system devices using a UNC path as the location, such as \\machinename\sharename To configure remote file system devices 1. Start Device Configuration. 2. Click Next. 3. Select the File System Devices radio button and click Next. If the Tape Engine service is currently running, Device Configuration will ask if it can be stopped to continue. 4. If you are sure that you have no backup or restore jobs in progress, click Yes to continue and stop the tape engine. When the tape engine has stopped, you will be presented with the screen where you can configure File System Devices. If you attempt to use a mapped drive with the most recent versions, it will be converted to a UNC Path. CA ARCserve Media Management 35

36 Configure Remote File System Devices 5. Click the Security button to specify credentials to connect to the remote share. By default the BrightStor System account will be used. If this is not appropriate, uncheck the checkbox to specify alternative credentials. 6. Click OK to save and verify the details. If the details are incorrect, you will receive a pop-up warning similar to the one below: 36 File System Devices

37 Configure Remote File System Devices If the credentials provided are correct, you will be returned to the File System Device Configuration Screen. 7. Click Finish to complete configuration. CA ARCserve Media Management 37

38 Configure Remote File System Devices Now that you have completed the configuration of the File system device, you can start the Tape Engine, either by opening the BrightStor Manager and going into Job Status, or by starting the engine in Services or Server Admin. In the Device Manager, you will see a new board 'CA FSAdapter'. In this, you will see the File System Device(s) you created. This is highlighted in the following two illustrations. 38 File System Devices

39 Configure Remote File System Devices Enlarged view: A new device group should be automatically created for the File System Devices. The more File System Devices you create, the more jobs you can run at one time. CA ARCserve Media Management 39

40 Add Multiple File System Devices to a Common Device Group File System Devices are used just like tape drives or individual tapes, but remember that the hard drive will be used up fast, so please check the free space available. Add Multiple File System Devices to a Common Device Group When you create an individual FSD, it will belong to its own Device Group. If you would like to add multiple FSD under a common Device Group then simply add them under a common "File Device Name" (which is the first field when defining an FSD). 40 File System Devices

41 Chapter 5: Disk Staging in CA ARCserve Backup for Windows Tape technology is the media of choice for most of today's backups because of its good price-capacity ratio. However, retrieving data from tapes can be time-consuming. Conventional hard disks can also be used as a backup target. The biggest advantage of backing up to disk is fast data restore. The price of hard disks has gone down dramatically in recent years, however, it is still not practical to use it for secondary storage. CA ARCserve can take advantage of low cost storage and quick data retrieval, by combining the two technologies using the disk staging mechanism. Data is first staged to disk for quick backup or restore and can later be archived to tape to free up disk space. Now that the data is residing on the file system devices, many businesses have a need to migrate this backup data to tape media, whether it is for archival, legal, or longevity reasons. To achieve this goal, CA ARCserve uses a tapecopy feature. As the data on the disk is already in same format that CA ARCserve uses while writing to tape media, the tapecopy command is used as a means for copying this data to the tape media. When completed, the data on the tape is identical to the data that resided on the disk, including the encryption if used. Disk Staging Requirements To configure CA ARCserve for disk staging, you need the following hardware and software: Software > BrightStor ARCserve Backup Host server > BrightStor ARCserve Backup Tape Library Option (if using a library with more than one drive) Hardware > Tape drive and/or Library > Hard disk storage sufficient to stage backup data for the user-specified number of days How Disk Staging Works Disk staging involves the following two steps: CA ARCserve Media Management 41