Vault Tracker®

Vault Tracker is used to track media that are removed from a library and stored in offsite locations. This technology identifies media associated with storage policy copies. Vault Tracker also uses the retention and media management settings to identify when tapes are required for export or due back from export location.

Vault Tracker provides the following capabilities:

• Identifies media that must be sent off-site for storage or brought back from off-site locations.
• Automatically moves the media in sequence in the library and provides a pick-up list for the operators.
• Can use Virtual Slots for easier removal of media from a library with a limited number of I/E ports.
• Facility to identify and track media during transit.
• Facility to track record and track containers when the media is stored and moved using containers.
• Facility to record and track the movement of non-CommCell or Foreign Media.

Vault Tracker jobs are initiated in three ways:

• A Tracking Policy initiated on-demand or scheduled.
• Advanced options of a Data Protection job.
• Vault Tracker options of an Auxiliary Copy job.

A Vault Tracker job that monitors exported media is reported in one of three states:

• At Source – Media is in a static location or library.
• At VMS – Media is in the Virtual Media Slots awaiting removal.
• In Transit – Media has been removed from a library or has been marked as 'Picked up' from a location other than a library.

Departure and Arrival of Media

Departure and arrival of media for a library is automatically recorded by the library's slot inventory mechanism. Therefore, media removed from a library source when the 'Auto Acknowledge' option is selected is automatically assumed to be in transit (if a transit location is specified) or at the specified export location.

Media Departing an Export Location

Media departing an export location can be automatically or manually flagged as removed from that location. It can be marked 'Picked Up' to put it 'In Transit' (if a transit location is specified) or optimistically at its destination (new source). 'In Transit' media, or exported media that has not been marked 'Picked Up' because you want to confirm its arrival at its intended export location (new source), can be marked as 'Reached Destination.'
Individual media in a transit state between two export locations that, for one reason or another, requires the return of the media to the originating source, can be marked 'Return to Source.' Alternatively, a Vault Tracker job that moved media between two export locations can be 'rolled back' to indicate return of its entire media to the source location.

Exported Media that is Re-used as Spare Media

Exported media that can be re-used as spare media can be tracked/scheduled with a 'Due Back' tracking policy. A Due Back tracking policy essentially creates a Vault Tracker job consisting of media at an export location that are in a 'Spare' state.
If a data protection operation requests an exported media (depending on the options selected for the library in the Media tab of the Library Properties dialog box), one of the following operations will be performed:

• Automatically mark the exported media as 'full,' and use a new media for the data protection operation.
• The job will remain in the 'waiting' state, with the 'Reason for job delay' stating that the media is outside the library.

However, if a restore or auxiliary copy job requires data from an exported media, the system prompts you to import the media to complete the operation. Information about exported media is retained in the system; they do not have to be rediscovered if they are re-imported.

Define Locations

Locations are defined to track media throughout its lifecycle. There are two options that define Locations: 'transit' or 'stationary.' Multiple transit and stationary locations are used to provide great flexibility and accuracy in tracking tape media. This is an important aspect of data lifecycle management.

Knowing where your data is and when it's time to recall the media for recycling is key for data retention and destruction policies.

Containers

Containers are used to logically group exported media into a single addressable unit. This reduces the number of objects to track and facilitates movement of a set of media into, or out of, third party off-site storage when a cost is assigned to each unit. Therefore, ten media placed in a single container for storage is a single unit cost in both directions.

Key points for defining and managing containers:

• Containers can be pre-defined by the user or dynamically defined by a Vault Tracker Job.
• Each container reports the volume of data it contains.
• Exported Media Properties reports which container the media is in.
• The contents of each container can be viewed.
• List Media identifies the required media, container, and location.

Containers can be created using the following methods:

• Automatically created from a Tracking Policy, using an automated mechanism to generate the container names. If this is established, a container is automatically created whenever the Tracking Policy is run, and all the location for all the media associated with the job is automatically set to the associated container.
• Manually created from the CommCell^® browser so you can define a name and specify details about the container.

Once the container is created, you can 'Move,' 'Remove,' 'Delete,' and 'Recall' all media associated with that container by right-clicking on the container in the CommCell browser and selecting the option. You can also view/edit the container's Properties.

Media Not Associated with a Container

For media that are not automatically associated with a container, there are several ways of associating the container information. When you record the 'Pending Action as Reached Destination,' you will be provided with the option to set a container if necessary. You can set the container for any 'Pending Action' that are displayed in the CommCell^® browser, when you click the 'Actions' icon under the Vault Tracker entity.

Containers can also be associated with media displayed in the 'Exported Media' pool as follows:

• Individually associate a container for a specific media by opening 'Media Properties' and selecting a container as the location for the media.
• Set the container for all media in the 'Exported Media pool,' by right-clicking the 'Exported Media' icon displayed under 'Media By Location' and then clicking the 'Set Container' option.

Virtual Mail Slots

Exporting multiple media from a library with a single mail slot can be time consuming. Each media moved to the mail slot must be manually acknowledged and removed individually.
Opening the library to remove multiple media manually may be quicker, but it requires a visual search of all the slots to find the appropriate media. Virtual Mail Slots alleviate the need to visually search the library for each media by designating a static block of slots within the library to hold the media awaiting export.

The Virtual Mail Slot feature is enabled on the Library's Media Properties page. The administrator enters the starting slot number, number of slots, and the direction (Up or Down) to use.

Vault Tracker^® Policies

Tracking Policies are used to track regular media movements, such as when media is shipped from a library to off-site storage, media repository, or shipment of media between two locations. Once a policy is created, you can view the media associated with that policy by right-clicking on the policy and selecting 'View Media.'

There are two types of tracking policies that are created using the Vault Tracker Enterprise Policy Wizard:

• Export Media Policies
• Due Back Policies

Export Media Policies

An Export Media policy is created to track the movement of media between any source and any destination, including:

• Library to location
• Location to location
• Location to library
• Library to library

If the tracking policy is used to export media from a tape library, it also moves the media in the I/E ports or virtual mail slots. To create a new tracking policy, right click on Vault Tracker Policies and select New Tracking Policy. This starts the wizard to create your scheduled tracking policy.
The first screen requires a policy name, and offers several options including Auto Acknowledge.

Auto acknowledge
When creating a Tracking Policy, you can enable the Auto Acknowledge option within the policy. When the policy is run, the system automatically acknowledges all pending actions associated with the media movement if both source and destination is a location. If the source is a library, the pending actions is automatically acknowledged when the media is removed from the library.

Delaying the export by
It is also possible to delay the export of the media, which creates a time gap between when the policy is run and when the media movement actions start. This provides time for you to create and review a Vault Tracking Report with all the policy's actions detailed prior to any actions taking place. If any changes to the policy are required, you can perform these changes without aborting or rerunning an action.

Put export into pending state
Temporarily stopping an action by placing the export operation in a pending state for a specified amount of time is yet another option. This is useful if you need to perform library maintenance or urgent data protection and recovery operations, but do not wish to abort or restart what has already been completed. You can manually restart the policy from the point it left off when the library is available, or you can set the policy to resume automatically at a specific time.
When you use the 'Auto Acknowledge' option to export tape media from a library, it is recommended to use the 'Delay the export by nn minutes' option to delay moving the media to the mail slots. If somebody physically removes the tapes from the library after the Export Media tracking policy completes, but before the tracking report is generated and sent to the tape operator, because of the Auto acknowledge option, tapes are marked as 'in vault' resulting in an empty report. For instance, the export can be delayed by ten minutes. This ensures that the report is generated before tapes are move to the mail slots.

Scheduling example using the Auto acknowledge option with a delay export of 10 minutes
The Export Media Policy is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. with a delay of 10 minutes to export media. The Tracking report that lists media to send to vault is scheduled to start at 9:05. This setup results in the following:

• 9:00 – Export Media tracking policy starts, which create a list of all tapes required to be sent to vault, but since the export is delayed, tapes are not moved in I/E ports yet.
• 9:05 – The Tracking report is generated listing all media required to go to vault and is sent to tape operators by emails.
• 9:10 – The delay for exporting media is reached and media are physically moved in the I/E ports.

Additional screens include several other options, such as storage policy copies. Storage policies copies must be selected to be included and managed by the policy. This can be useful for scheduling purposes. A good example could be to create a tracking policy to export tapes containing production data daily, and another tracking policy to export tapes containing development data once a week.

Media Status to Export
Media Status to export can also be configured. By default, only full media are exported. If the tape media is your primary recovery method in the case of disaster, it could potentially lead to data loss if the library is destroyed with tapes partially filled still located in it. In this case, it is recommended to select to include Active media, which means that partially filled media are also exported when the job runs.

By default, when exporting media, a limit of 10 media is defined for the export process. If you want to export all media meeting your criteria and avoid any data loss, it is recommended to uncheck the limit box.

Due Back Policies

A Due Back policy can be created to track the movement of spare media stored in an off-site location. When all jobs stored on an off-site media all expire, the media becomes a spare media that can be recalled and reused. The Due Back policy creates the list of anticipated media to recall. If the 'auto acknowledge' option is selected, as soon as the media is inserted in the I/E ports, it is imported in the library and the status is automatically changed from 'In Vault' to 'In Library.' When creating a policy, you can schedule the policy to run later if you anticipate changes being made to the policy prior to media movement taking place. Policies can be scheduled to run daily, weekly, etc.

Vault Tracker^® Reports

Built-in Vault Tracker reports can be sent to tape operators or backup administrators, to provide a list of tapes that are required to be exported or recalled. The list is automatically populated by the software based on the tracking policies media movement and media status.

Export Media Report

The Export Media report is used to validate that all media required for vaulting has been moved to the I/E ports. It can also be used to prepare the paperwork for the vaulting company if required. Reports can also be formatted as 'Iron Mountain' ready format and be sent to the vaulting company's ftp site if supported. The vaulting company therefore has a list of expected media and, in some cases, will pre-fill the paperwork requiring just a signature on pick-up.

Due Back Media Report

The Due Back Media report lists all media stationed in vault that have all jobs expired and can be recalled and used as spare media. Same as the Export Media report, The Due Back Media reports can be formatted as 'Iron Mountain' ready format and be sent to the vaulting company's FTP site if supported. The vaulting company therefore has a list of media to deliver and, in some cases, will pre-fill the paperwork requiring just a signature on delivery.

Running a Due Back Media report requires to be licensed for Vault Tracker^® Enterprise. If you are licensed for another Vault Tracker edition, this report is not included. If it is the case, to have a list of tapes to recall from vault, simply click the location in the CommCell^® browser and sort the media by 'return date'. All media having a return date listed as 'now' can be recalled.