White Papers
Table Of Contents
- 1 Installing and configuring the DR Series system for use with CommVault Simpana
- 2 Configuring CIFS and NFS containers for CommVault Simpana
- 2.1 Creating containers in the DR Series system
- 2.2 Adding the target container(s) to CommVault Simpana
- 2.2 Setting up a single system environment (DR Series system as NFS disk library)
- 2.3 Setting up a replicated system environment
- 2.4 Using the continuous data replicator to replicate client data to a DR Series container
- 3 Configuring VTL for CommVault Simpana
- 4 Setting up the DR Series system cleaner
- 5 Monitoring deduplication, compression, and performance
- A VTL configuration guidelines
- A.1 Managing VTL protocol accounts and credentials
- A.2 VTL default account summary table
- A.3 Managing VTL media and space use
- A.3.1 General performance guidelines for DMA configuration
- A.3.2 Physical space sizing and planning
- A.3.3 Logical VTL geometry and media sizing
- A.3.4 Media retention and grouping
- A.3.5 VTL media count guidelines
- A.3.6 Adding the VTL media to the container
- A.3.7 Updating CommVault to identify newly added VTL media
- A.3.8 Space reclamation
- B Glossary
94 Setting Up the Dell™ DR Series System as a CIFS or VTL Backup Target on CommVault Simpana |
April 2015
A.3.8 Space reclamation
General Guidelines
The DR v3.2 Appliance Virtual Tape Library feature is presented to operating systems and
data management applications alike as devices either through iSCSI or NDMP protocol
connectivity. The DMA interfaces with the virtual tape library and all its underlying
components including the drives and media though these specific protocols.
The DMA must interact with the virtual tape media during a recycle, reuse or media
initialization process in order for the DR to be able to reclaim space during its own
cleaning cycle.
This two-step process is required so that the backup software can reconcile the space by
marking the media as expired then reusing it, consolidating space across volumes/tapes or
by simply recycling the media into a scratch pool. Once these operations have been
completed the DRs own cleaning cycle should be used to reclaim that virtual tape media
space which in turn will free up physical space on the DR unit.
Implementing proper media pool, groups and recycling practices will allow the virtual tape
media to be used at optimal levels and that the underlying physical space be reclaimed
accordingly by the scheduled DR reclamation.
Note: In general the guidelines provided above should be sufficient for normal operations
to insure proper reclamation of space is conducted preemptively.
Refer your individual DMA applications for best practices and guidelines regarding tape
reuse.
Product-specific Guidelines
In the event that space becomes an issue or that a user impact requires manual cleaning
media can either be manually Erased, Blanked, Scratched or otherwise recycled and a
manual cleaning cycle initiated on the DR unit.
1. Identify the DR VTL tapes that you want to remove backups from via the Simapana
Commcell Console. Note the Barcodes of the Assigned tapes that you want to
erase and reclaim their storage on the DR.
CAUTION: This will permanently delete / destroy the data on these virtual volumes.
2.