Media rotation and Data Protector
Automatic media rotation and media handling
Data Protector automates media rotation and media handling as follows:
•Because media are grouped into media pools, you no longer need to manage single media. Data Protector automatically tracks and manages each single medium in the media pools.
•You do not need to decide to which media the backed up data is to be written to; Data Protector does that for you. You back up to a media pool.
•Data Protector automatically selects media from a media pool according to the media allocation policy and usage options you specified. You can also disable the automatic selection and perform manual media selection.
•The location of media is tracked and displayed in the Data Protector user interface as long as the media are configured in Data Protector.
•Data Protector automatically tracks the number of overwrites on the media and the age of the media and thus tracks the condition of the media.
•Data Protector provides a security mechanism so that media with protected data do not get overwritten accidentally by Data Protector.
Media needed for rotation
Estimating the quantity of needed media
The following helps to estimate the quantity of media you might need for a full rotation:
•Determine if the media capacity can be used fully or if some media are
•Determine the systems that will be backed up and the media space required for the related data. For example, you can use backup preview.
•Determine the backup frequency, such as the number of incremental backups between two full backups.
•Determine the quantity of media needed for one backup generation, where a backup generation contains a full backup and a sequence of incremental backups up to the next full backup. Consider also hardware compression if you have planned to use it with the devices.
•Determine for how long the media will remain protected.
•Calculate the number of backup generations that will have been created before the first backup generation can be overwritten.
144 | Media management and devices |