About archiving to tape

The table below lists commonly used tape archiving terms. See the figures after the table for diagrams illustrating these terms.

Term	Description
Autoloader	A device that has an internal tape changing mechanism as well as one or more drives, which can read from and write to magnetic tape media on more than one tape. This term is also used in Unitrends documentation in reference to autoloaders and tape libraries, which are used in the same way in the Unitrends D2D2T system.
Slot	A numbered storage bay for a tape inside a tape autoloader/library.
Tape device	Either a tape drive or tape autoloader.
Tape drive	A device that reads from and writes to magnetic tape media. Only one tape is loaded into a drive at a time, and it takes several minutes to load each tape.
Volumes	Archive sets that might be contained within one tape or might span several tapes.

The system generates serial numbers to identify tapes and writes the serial number onto the tape media. However, these serial numbers are not visible to users. If your tape device does not support barcode technology, you must manually locate tapes. Unitrends strongly recommends that you develop a labeling system for easy management of your tapes. When you label a tape, make sure to include the slot number the tape occupied when it was used for an archive job and other identifying information that will enable you to locate the tape.

The tape barcode features allows you to view tape information, tape locations, and select target slots when archiving. On tape devices that support barcodes, the system recognizes the barcode as soon as you insert the tape into the library. This decreases your time to locate tapes (even tapes stored offsite) and improves archiving performance.

Here are more details about the barcode feature:

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This feature works only with tape devices (including autoloaders) that have barcode readers and tapes that have valid barcode labels. If your tape device does not have a barcode or a standard barcode format, you can still use your tape device, but you must develop a strategy for manually locating your tapes. (See Managing tape inventory.)

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You can view barcode and/or tape location information in several places within the Archive section of the Unitrends appliance (if the tapes have readable barcodes). See To view the tape library and tape locations.

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You can designate the target slot location when performing an archive.

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Barcode labels for tape media use Code 39 (sometimes called Code 3-of-9), which is a widely used industrial standard. There are three wide elements and six narrow elements for every nine elements.

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Unitrends supports a mixed usage of tapes for barcodes, such as LT05 and LT06.

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If a barcode is available, the appliance automatically utilizes it during the restore process. No special procedures are required for the appliance to use a barcode during the restore process.

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When performing a restore, if you have moved tapes with barcodes to different slots, the system reads the barcodes and determines the correct location of the tapes.

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When you insert tapes into the tape library for import, the appliance scans the barcodes and identifies the slots that the tapes are occupying. It can also put together the unordered set of tapes in the slots. (For example, tapes were in slots 1, 2, 3, and 4 during the backup, removed, then inserted into slots 8, 9, 10, and 11. The system recognizes the barcodes regardless of the slot location.)