Firestreamer Media Changer (Beta) - Using the Changer with Microsoft DPM
Last modified on November 5, 2008
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Overview
IMPORTANT: Please let us know about your experience with Firestreamer
Media Changer. Send your feedback to
support@cristalink.com.
To use Firestreamer Media Changer with Microsoft System Center Data
Protection Manager (DPM), follow the steps below:
- Install Firestreamer Media Changer.
- Assign your protection groups to the Firestreamer Media Changer
library.
- Load media into the changer.
- Verify your setup by creating a recovery point.
For general information on how to use a tape library (a media changer)
with Microsoft DPM, please refer to the appropriate DPM manuals.
Note the following:
- Firestreamer Media Changer has no door or I/E ports. Nevertheless,
DPM still displays the Unlock library door and Lock library
door actions against the Firestreamer library. If you are
having troubles with updating the library state in DPM, unlock then
lock the library door, and then perform detailed inventory.
- If your file media are located on a network share, you need to supply the credentials that allow access to the
share.
Loading Media into the Changer
To load media into Firestreamer Media Changer, follow the steps below:
- Prepare a media map file named, for example,
c:\tapes\MediaMap.txt.
- In DPM Administrator Console, unlock the library door.
- Run CSTest.exe located in Firestreamer's installation
folder (usually, c:\Program Files\Cristalink\FsChanger).
- Type the following commands (note that the file name is specified
without quotes):
load c:\tapes\MediaMap.txt
quit
- In DPM Administrator Console, lock the library door.
- Perform inventory of the library.
File Media on Network Shares
For a file medium on a network share to be accessible by Firestreamer,
the file needs to be opened in an appropriate security context. The
security context for file media is provided by the Firestreamer Helper
Service (FsHelperSvc). By default, the service is configured to run
under the Local System account which cannot access network resources.
To use the file media which resides on network shares, follow the
steps below:
- Open Windows Control Panel > Administrative Tools
> Services.
- Right-click Firestreamer Helper Service, click Properties,
and then click Log On.
- Enter the credentials that allow access to the media you intend
to load into the changer.
- Restart the Firestreamer Helper Service.
- Load the media into the changer.
The Media Map File
The media map file defines the media to be loaded into Firestreamer
Media Changer. The file can be prepared in any text editor (for example,
Notepad), however, the file must be saved in the Unicode
format.
A typical media map file contains multiple lines, one line per medium.
Each line has the following format:
Snnn|[barcode]|file://filemedia.fsrm[*RO][*MaxSize]
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Snnn
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Specifies the storage slot number. You can use any value in the range
of S1...Smax, where max is the maximum slot number
(by default, 200).
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barcode
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Specifies the medium bar code. The bar code can contain no more than
36 characters from the following set: A...Z, 0...9 and _ (underscore).
This parameter is optional.
IMPORTANT: To ensure compatibility with the future versions of the
changer, we recommend using the file name of the corresponding file
medium without the .fsrm extension as the medium bar code.
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filemedia
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Specifies the full path and file name of the file medium. If the
file medium resides on a network share, use the full UNC path, for
example, \\server\share\file.fsrm. If the file does not exist,
it will be created automatically.
IMPORTANT: To ensure compatibility with the future versions of the
changer, we recommend using the file names containing no more than
36 characters from the following set: A...Z, 0...9 and _ (underscore).
The length of the entire file path is limited to 2000 characters.
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*RO
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Specifies that the medium is to be opened in read only (write protected)
mode. This parameter is optional.
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*MaxSize
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Specifies the maximum size of the file medium in megabytes as a decimal
number. This parameter is optional.
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Examples:
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S001||file://c:\tapes\tape0000000001.fsrm
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Defines a file medium on a local drive, without a bar code, unlimited
in size, loaded into slot 1.
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S002|tape0000000002|file://\\server\share\tape0000000002.fsrm*1000
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Defines a file medium on a network share, with a bar code, limited
to 1000 MB, loaded into slot 2.
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S003||file://\\server\share\tape0000000003.fsrm*RO
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Defines a file medium on a network share, without a bar code, write
protected, loaded into slot 3.
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For your convenience, we prepared the
sample media map file which defines 49 file media located
in the c:\tapes folder.
Troubleshooting
If you are having troubles with Firestreamer Media Changer, check
for error messages in the following locations:
- CSTest.exe displays recent and live Firestreamer events similar
to the Activity tab of the Firestreamer Control Panel included in
previous versions of the software. NOTE: You can safely ignore the
following Unknown Event warnings: 20, 22, 36, 37.
- Application Event Log contains certain Firestreamer events logged
under the FsHelperSvc source.
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