Tape questions

The technical support forum for Firestreamer (the virtual tape library).
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chernandez
Posts: 4
Joined: 20 Jan 2011, 21:01

Post by chernandez »

Hello,

I have two questions regarding tape management. One, after I have created my protection groups and backup jobs in DPM and set them for long term retention to tape, how do I monitor the available space on the tapes I created? Is there a way to tell if the tapes are almost used up and I need to create more tapes? Also, I set a long term retention range to tape in DPM of 5 years, is there a way to make sure the tapes will not be overwritten by another backup job for 5 years?

Thanks!
jsf
Cristalink Support
Posts: 300
Joined: 29 Aug 2010, 09:03

Post by jsf »

how do I monitor the available space on the tapes I created? Is there a way to tell if the tapes are almost used up and I need to create more tapes?
It's the backup software that should display the tape usage data, not a tape drive. Normally, you don't need to monitor tapes with Microsoft DPM. It should alert you when it needs more free tapes. Please contact Microsoft Support for more information.

We plan to add the ability to display the amount of free space on tapes to one of the future versions of Firestreamer. Meanwhile, if you absolutely need to check the free space on a tape, perform the following steps:
  1. Load the tape into a tape drive, as opposed to a storage slot.
  2. Run Windows Device Manager as an administrator.
  3. Expand Tape Drives, right-click the appropriate tape drive, and then click Properties.
  4. Click the Tape Media Capacity tab (it will only be displayed if there is a tape in the drive, and you are an administrator). The amount of free space on the tape in bytes is displayed under Available Capacity.
I set a long term retention range to tape in DPM of 5 years, is there a way to make sure the tapes will not be overwritten by another backup job for 5 years
I would assume that DPM wouldn't overwrite tapes in this scenario. However, please check with Microsoft Support. It has nothing to do with Firestreamer. Like a physical tape library, it's not aware of the tape content, let alone data retention settings.
Best regards,
John Smith
Cristalink Support
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