Moving tapes offsite

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Normally, you move a tape offsite when your backup software indicates the tape is ready for offsite. However, nothing prevents you from moving a tape offsite even if it is not marked as ”ready”. It is the same as if you pressed the eject button on a physical tape library, took the ejected tape and put it in a safe place. On the other hand, nothing prevents you from leaving a ”ready for offsite” tape in the library.
To move a virtual tape ”offsite”, unload the tape from Firestreamer first. You can unload one tape, several tapes, or all tapes at once. Once a virtual tape is unloaded, the underlying .fsrm file can be moved, copied and/or left where it is.

We recommend that you move the .fsrm file of a ”ready for offsite” tape to a safe location. Once moved, you can create copies of the file, back up the file to physical tape, and so on. Create and load a new tape to replace the moved one.

Do not (unless you know what you do):

• Make copies of a .fsrm file if it is still used for backups. You may end up with different tapes with the same barcode. Your backup software will only be aware of the most recently used tape with a given barcode.
• Change the name of a .fsrm file. By doing so, you change the tape barcode. Your backup software will be unaware of the tape with a new barcode.

Firestreamer does not maintain a database of unloaded tapes. It is only aware of the currently loaded tapes. From Firestreamer’s standpoint, you can do whatever you like with unloaded tapes. You can even delete them if you do not need them anymore.