HP B6960-96035 manual Location field, How are labels used?

Data Protector also assigns each medium a media ID that uniquely identifies this medium.

An ANSI X3.27 label is also written on the tape for identification on other systems. Data Protector writes these labels with other information to a medium header and to the IDB.

If you change the medium label, Data Protector modifies the medium label in the IDB and not on the medium itself. Therefore, if you export and import media that have not been updated, the medium label in the IDB is replaced with the medium label from the media. The media label on the tape can be changed only by re-initializing (formatting) the media.

How are labels used?

These labels identify the medium as a Data Protector medium. When loading a medium for backup or restore, Data Protector checks the medium for the medium ID. The media management system maintains the information about this medium, which tells Data Protector whether the requested action is allowed for this medium. For example, if you try to write a new backup to this medium, the media management system checks whether the data protection for the data already contained on this medium has expired. The user defined label is used to identify a specific medium.

Location field

Backup media are usually stored in different locations. For example, a backup needs to be available on site for fast restore access, whereas a medium containing a copy of the backed up data is often stored off-site for safety reasons.

Data Protector provides a location field for each medium, which can be used freely by the operator(s). This field can help to track the location of the media. Examples of meaningful location fields would be: In Library, off-site, and vault_1.

The media location setting is also useful if an object version that you want to restore exists on more than one media set. You can set the media location priority, which influences the selection of the media set that will be used for the restore. For more information on the selection of media for restore, see “Selection of the media

set” on page 126.

146 Media management and devices