Creating robotic library partitions

You can group one or more robotic library slots into partitions. Partitioning robotic library slots provides more control over which media is used for backup jobs. When you set up robotic library partitions, Backup Exec creates a device pool for each partition. Jobs targeted to a partition device pool run on the media located in the partition's slots. For example, if you set up a partition that contains slots 1 and 2 and you want to run a weekly backup only on the media in these slots, you would submit the job to the partition device pool containing slots 1 and 2.

A partition divider lists the range of slots included in the partition.

For example, if you want to create two 5-slot partitions on a robotic library with 10 slots, click Slot 1 and Slot 6. In this example, Slots 1-5 will be included in the first partition and Slots 6-10 will be included in the second.

Partitions can include any number of robotic library slots; however, the first partition cannot be moved or deleted when other partitions exist.

Depending upon the robotic library configuration, the first slot could be numbered 1 or 0. If the robotic library uses a zero-based slot configuration and you assign the first partition to begin with slot 1, the Partition Utility will actually use slot 0 as the first slot for partition 1 and adjust the starting slot accordingly for all other partitions.

The partition device pools appear in the Devices view under the Device Pools icon. If the robotic library is partitioned, Backup Exec searches for the oldest recyclable media in the targeted partition only. If more than one media meeting the requirements is found, Backup Exec then selects the media in the lowest-numbered slot; for example, media in slot 2 would be selected before equivalent media in slot 4.

In order to fully benefit from Backup Exec's partition management feature, Symantec recommends that you create a partitioning scheme that best matches the manner in which you want to control your backups. For example, some administrators may feel that network backups are best managed by allowing access to partitions based on users and groups, while others may want to base their partitions on operation types (Backup, Tape Rotation, Archive, etc.).

To create partitions

  1. On the navigation bar, click Devices.

  2. Expand the server icon, and then click Robotic Libraries.

  3. Select the robotic library containing the slots that you want to partition.

  4. Under Robotic Library Tasks in the task pane, select Configure partitions.

  5. Select the robotic library slots to include in each partition by clicking the slots on which each new partition should begin.

  6. While defining the partitions, use the following buttons to help make selections:

    Remove Partition

    Remove the selected partition. The slots contained in the partition you are removing are added to the partition preceding it.

    Move Up

    Move the selected partition divider up to increase the number of slots in the partition. (The number of slots in the preceding partition is decreased.)

    Move Down

    Move the selected partition divider down to decrease the number of slots in the partition. (The number of slots in the preceding partition is increased.)

    Remove All

    Remove all partition settings.

  7. Click OK after configuring the partitions.

  8. Click Yes to accept the partitions.

    The partition drive pools appear under Robotic Libraries for the robotic library on which they were created. All partition drive pools for a robotic library have the same name and display the slot ranges for the partition in parentheses within the name.

  9. After defining the partitions, you can submit jobs to those partitions' drive pools.

    The partition drive pools appear in the list of devices along with other devices available to the media server.

  10. Click the target partition drive pool and run the job as you would any other Backup Exec job.