Move tapes from MSL6000 to off-site

[Ron Wilkinson]

Since the HP StorageWorks MSL6000 is a self-contained tape storage unit, how would I go about removing specific tapes to an off-site place for disaster recovery? I would like to do this on a weekly basis and rotate the off-site tapes.

[rich pattison · Accepted solution]

The MSL libraries have a "mailslot" on the L/H side magazine specifically for exporting tapes without affecting the normal operation of the library. The mailslot is opened from the front panel touch screen. (If you need a whole lot of tapes to be removed - you can release the entire magazine).

Any tapes that need to be taken offsite should be exported to the mailslot after the backup job has written them. This is normally accomplished by policies set within the backup application, or by calling an external application or script once the backup is finished. It really depends on which backup app. you are using.

Re-importing tapes from offsite locations would also use the mailslot.

There is archiving software available which is configurable to deploy archiving policies, offsite media tracking, pre-loading media, etc - HP's product is Openview Storage Operations Manager - but this is an enterprise class product designed for hundreds or thousands of peices of media.

Regards

Rich

[rich pattison]

Sorry......that should be "storage Media Operations" software (OpenView SMO).

Rich