The Storage Device Administration option of the SBCON Main Menu lists the devices and the media you can access.
You can perform the following administrative tasks:
SBCON supports autoloader, which holds multiple media within a magazine. Every magazine has slot numbers given by the manufacturer and each slot holds a single medium. This is extremely useful when you are backing up a large server. If one medium is fully written, the SME automatically writes to the other available media.
IMPORTANT:Any media under a device becomes inaccessible if a job is running on it because it is reserved by the engine. Any job scheduled to be executed at that instance will fail.
The Device Status screen displays information about the current status of a device, such as read, write, and format. It also gives information on the storage capacity.
Ensure that you have met the prerequisites detailed in Section 3.1, Prerequisites for Performing SBCON Tasks.
Select Main Menu > Storage Device Administration.
Select a device and press Insert.
Select Utilities > Device Status.
The Device Status screen is displayed listing the following information:
Current Operation— Indicates whether the device is currently reading, writing, formatting the media, or none of these.
Device Mode —Indicates whether the device is selected for reading, writing, or both.
Maximum Capacity— Indicates the total storage capacity of the media currently present in the device.
Press Esc when you are finished to return to the Main Menu.
The default names for storage devices are controlled by the device manufacturers. These names are often not descriptive, so you change the name of the device during multiple backup sessions. However, this change is temporary, and it is lost after a reboot. If you have several devices, it might be difficult to remember which name goes with which device. For this reason, renaming storage devices is helpful.
Ensure that you have met the prerequisites detailed in Section 3.1, Prerequisites for Performing SBCON Tasks.
Select Main Menu > Storage Device Administration.
Select a device name and press Insert.
Select Utilities > Change the Device Label.
Enter the new name in the field.
Press Esc as required to return to the Main Menu.
This task allows you to view your list of devices.
Ensure that you have met the prerequisites detailed in Section 3.1, Prerequisites for Performing SBCON Tasks.
Select Main Menu > Storage Device Administration.
A list of devices is displayed.
If no device is displayed in the list, run LIST DEVICES at the server prompt.
Select a device name and press Enter.
The List of Media screen appears, displaying the following information:
Slot – The slot number given by the manufacturer.
Media name – The name of the media, which can be changed using the Utilities menu. See Erasing or Retaining Media.
Number – The sequential number of the media (tape) in a particular backup set. SBCON automatically labels and appends an incremental number to any backup session that spans multiple media.
HINT:It takes a lot of time to display the media in an Autoloader. However, after the media list is displayed, press Tab to access it. This will not rescan the device for new media. Press Enter only when you remove or add media.
This task lets you check the status of a particular media type.
Ensure that you have met the prerequisites detailed in Section 3.1, Prerequisites for Performing SBCON Tasks.
Select Main Menu > Storage Device Administration.
Select one device from the list.
Select one media and press Insert.
Select Utilities > Media Status.
A screen is displayed listing the following information:
Number in Media Set – The sequential number of the media within a particular media set.
SBCON automatically labels and appends an incremental number to any backup sessions that span multiple media.
Creation time – The time the current media label was first used on this media.
Mount status – Whether the media is Mounted (ready for reading or writing). There are two status messages:
Mount Pending: The request to mount is waiting to be processed.
Not Mounted: The media is not ready to access.
Media mode – Whether the media is selected for reading, writing or both, or whether the mount request is pending.
Media type – The type of media in the device, such as 4mm DDS (Digital Data Storage) tape, or 8mm tape.
Total capacity – The total capacity of the media, if known. Sometimes it is not displayed, depending on the media manager.
The type of media manager controls the display of the total capacity of the media.
Press Esc when you are finished to return to the Main Menu.
This task erases media headers, erases all data on the media, or retains media in tape devices.
Ensure that you have met the prerequisites detailed in Section 3.1, Prerequisites for Performing SBCON Tasks.
Select Main Menu > Storage Device Administration.
A list of devices is displayed.
Select one device from the list.
Select one media and press Insert.
Select Utilities > Erase the Media [or] Retention of Media.