•Obtain the number of required media. See “Implementing a media rotation policy” on page 143.

Sharing a library with other applications

A library device can be shared with other applications storing data to media in the device.

You can decide which drives from the library you want to use with Data Protector. For example, out of a four-drive library you may choose to use only two drives with Data Protector.

You can decide which slots in the library you want to manage with Data Protector. For example, out of the 60 slots library you might use slots 1-40 with Data Protector. The remaining slots would then be used and controlled by a different application.

Sharing of the library with other applications is especially important with large HP libraries and silo libraries, such as StorageTek/ACSLS or ADIC/GRAU AML devices.

Enter / eject mail slots

Library devices provide special enter/eject mail slots an operator uses to enter or eject media to or from the device. Depending on the device, more than one enter/eject slot can be provided. In case of a single mail slot, media are inserted one by one, while in case of multiple mail slots, a particular number of slots can be used in one enter/eject operation.

Data Protector allows you to enter/eject several media in one step. For example, you can select 50 slots in the device and eject all media in one action. Data Protector will automatically eject media in the correct order for the operator to remove the media from the enter/eject mail slot.

For more information, see the documentation about your device.

Barcode support

Data Protector supports library devices with a barcode reader. In these devices, each medium has a barcode that uniquely identifies media.

Advantages of barcodes

Barcodes enable Data Protector to significantly improve media recognition, labeling, and cleaning tape detection.

Concepts guide

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