BackBox H4.00 VTC Scripting Option

Introduction
8 BackBox H4.00 VTC Scripting Option
Deletion of back-end archives, reuse of physical media
Ideally the Enterprise Backup is configured for infinite retention of the archives – or
backups, and a BackBox delete script is used to delete the expired stored virtual
volume saved in the Enterprise Backup.
This way the expiration of a NonStop tape volume in DSM/TC or TMF or QTOS is
automatically propagated not only to the online storage in the data Store, but also to
the archives in the Enterprise Backup.
This automation requires an Enterprise Backup command that deletes the archives of
only two Windows files whose names are passed by BackBox to the Delete script.
Some Enterprise Backup allow to attach a free identifier to a backup session. For
example the backup script saves the two DAT and IND files of a volume label VOL123
and associate them to the a ‘session name’ VOL123; then the delete script can
remove the two file backups by deleting or expiring all archives associated to the
‘session name’ VOL123.
When it is not possible to automatically forward the actual expiration of each virtual
volume in a DSM/TC or TMF, two other means could be used to set a predefined
expiration to the archives.
1. A few predefined expirations are configured in the Enterprise Backup and
associated to specific Windows directory names themselves configured in
different Data stores and Volume groups. Thus the DSM/TC pool will direct to
specific Windows directories and indirect retention in the Enterprise Backup.
2. A parameter to the Enterprise Backup executed in the backup script specifies
the retention or a storage management class. This retention must be set in
the backup script, according the available Windows parameters provided to
the script, such as the Volume group name or the Volume class.
Restore of Windows files
When the NonStop requires a virtual volume and the disk files have been archived
and deleted, then the missing Windows disk files are automatically restored by
executing the restore script.
If there is a possibility of massive restore, running several concurrent NonStop
restores reading from sequential media in the Enterprise Backup, the process must
be planned carefully planned.
Without planning there is a high risk the contention on Enterprise Backup sequential
media will freeze all but a single NonStop restores needing the same media.
The restore script, as well as the other scripts, must be implemented in a way that
any VTC configured as route to the Data Store can execute it, whatever the VTC that
has originally written the two disk files containing a virtual volume.