- Sun Storage Virtual Tape Library VTL User Guide

Managing tapes
108 VTL User Guide • May 2008 G • 96267
■ copyaphysicaltapetoavirtualtapethatemulates thesametypeofmedia
■ directlyaccessaphysicaltapewithoutcopyingtheentiretape
■ recycleaphysical tapeafterimportingitscontentstovirtualmedia
■ movedatafromavirtualtapetoaphysicaltapeofthesamemediatype
VTLimport/exportcapabilitiesareparticularlyusefulwhenyouarenot usingthe
AutomatedTapeCachingfeatureandwanttomovetapesfromavirtuallibraryto
physical mediaforlongtermstorag e. Should yousubsequentlyneed
torecoverfiles,
youcanaccessthephysicaltapevolumedirectly,inthephysicallibrary,byusingthe 
VTLimpo rtfunction.Thisgivesthebackupapplicationimmediateaccessto thetape
datawithoutwaitingforacompletecopy—abigadvantage when youneedto
restoreonlyasmallamountofdata.
Youshouldnote,however,thatVTLsoftwaresup portsseveralofwaysofmoving
datafromvirtualto phy si c al storage,eachofwhichhasadvantagesinparti cula r
situations. InadditiontoVTL’sexportfunction,eachofthefollowingmethods
supportsmigrationofdatafromvirtualtophysicalmedia:
■ copying virtualtapetophysicaltapeusingthe functionalityprovidedbyyour
backuporcopy‐/vault‐managementapplication
■ automaticallycloningvirtualvolumestophysicalmedia aftereachbackupusing
theVTLAutoArchivefunction
■ automaticallycloningvirtualvolumestophysicalmedia usingthepolicy‐driven
VTLAutomatedTapeCachingoption.
Youshouldthusconsideryouroptionsbeforedeciding onamethod.Automated
TapeCac hi n g and AutoArchivecannotbeusedtogether.
Upto32import/exp ortjobscanrunconcurrently,although,inpra ctice ,thisis
generally
limitedtosomethinglessbythenumberofph y si cal tapedrivesavailable
ontheattachedlibrary.
Thissection holdsinstructionsforthefollowingtasks:
■ “Importinga phy si c al tapeintoavirtualli brary” onpage 109
■ “ImportingcartridgesinanIBMiSeriesenvironment”onpage 115
■ “Exportingvirtualtapetophysicaltape”onpage 115
■ “ExportingcartridgestothevirtualvaultinanIBMiSeriesenvironment”on
page 119.