Virtual TapeServer 6.03.42 Operations and Administration Guide

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Using Scan/Cleanup
Scan/Cleanup is a Virtual TapeServer (VTS) feature that is designed to help you maintain
VTS. It scans pools and virtual tapes to identify virtual tapes that are past their retention
period. Scan/Cleanup can erase old virtual tapes to recover disk space. You can also schedule
virtual tape erasures when the overall disk space falls below a specified threshold. Scan/
Cleanup can be used to erase tapes after migration. See
Migrating Data to Physical Tape on
page 109 for more information about migration.
To enable Scan/Cleanup, you must modify the VTS configuration file to configure the
cleanup_ parameters.
Here is a description of the general Scan/Cleanup functionality and the erase process:
• A virtual tape that is locked cannot be erased. Virtual tapes can be individually locked,
locked by pool, or locked by autoloading. The locked status must be manually changed to
erase a locked virtual tape.
• For the erase process, the following rules are applied and the virtual tapes are erased.
• Do not schedule erasure of virtual tapes that have not been migrated by VTS.
• Do not schedule erasure of a virtual tape that is smaller than a minimum file size.
• Schedule erasure of a virtual tape if its retention time has expired. (The retention
period is set when the pool is created or modified.)
• Schedule erasure of virtual tapes that exceed a specified percent of usage.
Each time Scan/Cleanup runs, it scans all virtual tapes and applies these business rules.
If a virtual tape meets the criteria, it is identified for erasure. Once a virtual tape is
erased, it cannot be recovered.
• The erase process can be manual or automated. To enable automated erasure, set the
cleanup_autoerase parameter in the VTS configuration file. Then, configure
cleanup_scan_at time and cleanup_interval. The cleanup_autoerase parameter
enables the feature, and the cleanup_scan_at and cleanup_interval parameters
determine how often and how frequently the process will be run. By default, automated
erasure is disabled.
• You can force an erasure or block an erasure by using the checkboxes on the Scan/Cleanup
page. However, when an erase process completes (either auto-erase or erase-now), these
overrides are removed.
• When Scan/Cleanup erases a virtual tape, the header information (metadata) remains
stored on VTS.
This chapter describes how to enable, configure, and use Scan/Cleanup.