Spectra Logic Spectra nTier File Migrator User Manual Download Page 21

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Determining Disk Space Requirements

Example calculation

for an installation with only stand-alone tape drives:

Up to a 250,000 files: 2 GB required for metadata

Maximum file size of 1 GB: 20 GB allowed for caching

Immediate file deletion and no replication: zero allowance is required for online
retention

A total dedicated logical drive capacity of 22 GB or higher is estimated for this
installation.

Example calculation

for a 200 TB digital video archive using a large tape library:

100,000 files with high resolution content and 100,000 low resolution proxy files:
1.6 GB required for metadata

Average high resolution file size of 2 GB: 40 GB allowed for caching

Average low resolution proxy file is 100 MB and all must be retained online: 10 TB
required for online retention.

A total dedicated logical drive capacity of just over 10 TB is estimated for this
installation.

Summary of Contents for Spectra nTier File Migrator

Page 1: ...Spectra nTier File Migrator User Guide PN 90990032 Revision A...

Page 2: ...his manual is believed to be accurate and reliable However no responsibility is assumed by Spectra Logic for its use Due to continuing research and development Spectra Logic may revise this publicatio...

Page 3: ...rt web Site www spectralogic com support index cfm Knowledge Base www spectralogic com support kbase index cfm United States and Canada Phone 800 227 4637 E mail support spectralogic com Europe Middle...

Page 4: ...Contacting Spectra Logic 4 Notes...

Page 5: ...bute 19 Determining Disk Space Requirements 20 Chapter 2 Concepts 23 Introduction 23 File Groups 23 Constructing the File Name Path Pattern or Exclude Pattern 24 Examples of Allocating Files to File G...

Page 6: ...ble Stand Alone Drives 43 Activate the nTier File Migrator License 44 Activate the Archive Drive 44 Start the License Administration Utility 44 Complete the Installation 45 Next Steps 46 Chapter 4 Con...

Page 7: ...ta on a Tape 73 Finalizing a Tape 74 Write Protecting Tapes 75 Exporting a Tape 75 Managing Volume Sets and File Groups 76 Deleting a Volume Set 76 Renaming a File Group 76 Retensioning Tapes 77 Chapt...

Page 8: ...Viewing More Detail about an Error or Warning 84 Diagnostic Trace Log 84 Opening the Trace Log 84 Changing the Level of Detail in the Trace Log 85 Automatic Generation of Trace Files 86 Tape Drive and...

Page 9: ...e appliances and libraries check the Spectra Logic web site at www spectralogic com documentation Spectra nTier Intelligent Secondary Storage Appliances The Spectra nTier500 Intelligent Secondary Stor...

Page 10: ...ns to highlight important information Note Provides additional information or suggestions about the current topic Caution Provides information you must know to avoid damage to the library or tape driv...

Page 11: ...appear as a single standard Windows logical drive which means one or more software applications can write to and read from the archive as though it were a standard disk based logical drive letter Stro...

Page 12: ...ache and simultaneously transferred over the network to fulfill the read request The system administrator defines policies that determine where data files are physically stored A single server may hav...

Page 13: ...replication After all copies of the file have been produced the file can be flushed deleted from magnetic disk according to the administrator defined policy When a file is read it is always retrieved...

Page 14: ...when a file is no longer online Benefit Seamlessly integrates with standard applications and existing network infrastructure without modification Combining HSM and Data Protection Archive Series soft...

Page 15: ...er based utility that lets authorized users access all versions of a file and all deleted files Benefit Provides legal compliance and best business practice including meeting SEC17a 4 requirements Ope...

Page 16: ...s Figure 1 3 shows a Windows server the nTier700 connected to tape library and a stand alone data tape drive A configuration combining a tape library and a stand alone drive is useful when files are r...

Page 17: ...ve and appropriate RAID retention rules Make sure that only one set of tapes Volume Set is configured and that tape replication is scheduled to occur at a time when there is no other writing or readin...

Page 18: ...to magnetic disk then the file is immediately written to tape The system does not permit a file to be written to disk unless there is a suitable tape with sufficient available capacity loaded into one...

Page 19: ...e automatic replication capabilities of the nTier File Migrator software This can be useful if one set of tape cartridge replicas is to be held off site for data protection purposes This option is not...

Page 20: ...one million files will require 8 GB for the metadata Read and write caching The dedicated logical drive provides caching for each file that is being written and all files that are open due to being re...

Page 21: ...ve capacity of 22 GB or higher is estimated for this installation Example calculation for a 200 TB digital video archive using a large tape library 100 000 files with high resolution content and 100 0...

Page 22: ...Chapter 1 Overview 22 Notes...

Page 23: ...s and Volume Sets are configured by the administrator using the Archive Management Console File Groups A File Group is a collection of files that have the same file management policy and consequently...

Page 24: ...elative to other File Groups in the Archive Management Console display which defines the order in which file name or path pattern selection is applied If a file name matches the selection criteria for...

Page 25: ...ntax the special directory wild card can be used to match any number of intermediate sub folders The system supports multiple patterns per File Group separated by semicolons Some examples file name or...

Page 26: ...ank in this example Note also that we used instead of in File Group 3 to ensure that all files are included in the File Group including those without a name extension This set includes any files that...

Page 27: ...Group Example 5 This is similar to example 4 where all temporary files are excluded from the first two File Groups by using the Exclude pattern field As for example 4 all file names ending in tmp are...

Page 28: ...a preset threshold defined by the administrator the system automatically adds another Volume by taking the appropriate number of tapes from the blank media set and extends the Volume Set The data on...

Page 29: ...A Volume Set consists of a set of tape cartridges with a defined media type WORM or rewritable and replication strategy Each Volume Set stores files from one or more File Groups Automatic tape cartrid...

Page 30: ...ystem stops accepting data from users and reports disk full when a user tries to write to the Volume Set About the Quarantined Media Set The quarantined media set contains media that the system could...

Page 31: ...ich can provide significant performance improvements with large files Furthermore controlled file fragmentation allows a large file to be spanned across multiple Volumes Partial file restore requires...

Page 32: ...ator software also posts a message in the nTier File Migrator area of the Windows Event Log that identifies which tape cartridge or cartridges contain the file The cartridge s containing the file must...

Page 33: ...security model is extended to deleted files and old versions of files made available to users via the History Explorer or another application written using the nTier File Migrator interface In these...

Page 34: ...Chapter 2 Concepts 34 Notes...

Page 35: ...one tape drive to the nTier Access the nTier Windows Desktop The configuration steps described in this chapter require accessing the Windows Desktop through the nTier BlueScale web interface Note Refe...

Page 36: ...of just entering the IP address 3 Log into the BlueScale web interface then select General Windows Desktop to access the Windows Desktop on the nTier A message displays that provides the option to co...

Page 37: ...Desktop Instead it is accessed from the Start menu If desired you can customize the Windows Desktop to show the My Computer icon 2 Select Disk Management 3 Choose the drive letter of the logical volu...

Page 38: ...st be removed Note If you stop using nTier File Migrator software you may want to re enable NFS so that the nTier drives can be mapped by other systems over the network See Re Enabling NFS on page 39...

Page 39: ...ows Desktop on page 35 9 Repeat Steps 1 through 5 to confirm that msnfsflt is no longer listed Re Enabling NFS If you stop using the nTier File Migrator software you may want to re enable NFS so that...

Page 40: ...A summary screen showing the options that will be enable displays 7 Select Next A series of progress screens display as the required components are installed 8 When the installation is complete a scr...

Page 41: ...he installation program 5 Follow the instructions provided by the setup wizard accepting defaults 6 When the setup is complete restart the nTier a From the Windows Start menu select Shut Down Restart...

Page 42: ...Hardware tab then select Device Manager 3 Expand the Medium Changers category and right click on Unknown Medium Changer to display the context menu 4 Select Update Driver to launch the Hardware Updat...

Page 43: ...iguration Utility to enable them for use with nTier File Migrator 1 From the nTier Windows Desktop use Windows Explorer to locate the Hardware Configuration Utility program which is located at C Progr...

Page 44: ...Desktop on page 35 Start the License Administration Utility 1 From the nTier Windows Desktop select Start Programs nTier File Migrator The License Administration Utility detects the unique identity fo...

Page 45: ...ight click on the link in the displayed page and select Save target as 8 Select a location to save the XML license file either on a USB device or on a storage location that is accessible to the nTier...

Page 46: ...ne of the tapes The nTier File Migrator software automatically tries to identify any tape cartridge that is imported into a library or tape drive under its control Blank tapes are assigned to the blan...

Page 47: ...h tape are required if any If you plan to enable replication the decide how often you want to generate the replicas How many different File Groups are required A File Group is a collection of files th...

Page 48: ...sly while still maintaining good performance if significantly more tapes are being simultaneously accessed than there are available tape drives the excessive tape access slows down performance Start t...

Page 49: ...igure Volume Sets A Volume Set consists of a set of tape cartridges of a single media type WORM or rewritable and replication strategy Each Volume Set can store files from one or more File Groups Crea...

Page 50: ...lay the Volume Set Configuration dialog box 4 In the Volume Set Configuration select WORM or Rewritable tape cartridges as appropriate 5 Use the Compressed field to set whether to enable tape drive da...

Page 51: ...e first Volume tape cartridge After you add a Volume with its associated allocation of tape cartridges only the replication schedule can be changed not the number of replicas created Note Replication...

Page 52: ...cartridge swapping that leads to degraded performance Periodic replication To define a periodic replication schedule check the Replicate every box and enter the replication schedule choosing minutes...

Page 53: ...ion is not enabled for the selected Volume Set only one tape is allocated If replication is enabled enough tape cartridges are allocated to satisfy the specified number of copies of each cartridge tha...

Page 54: ...see Start the Archive Management Console on page 48 2 Navigate to the File group configuration section and right click on File group configuration to display the context menu 3 Click on New and selec...

Page 55: ...tern on page 24 to learn more about how nTier File Migrator allocates files to File Groups Use the following steps to change the order in which File Groups are listed 1 Start the Archive Management Co...

Page 56: ...ne storage rules for each File Group by setting the following policy options File system physical storage including whether the File Group is stored on tape and if so on which Volume Set Settings for...

Page 57: ...ion rules as described in Disk Retention Rules on page 57 Setting disk retention rules helps conserve disk space on the nTier If you do not configure any disk retention rules the system retains all cu...

Page 58: ...her way The only impact of flushing is to increase the time taken to read the file because it first has to be retrieved from tape When the nTier File Migrator software receives a request to read the f...

Page 59: ...read from disk Files are flushed immediately after being read Select Flush read files from disk and As soon as the file is read Ensure that the option Flush written files from disk is unchecked With...

Page 60: ...d number of hours or days for retention of the file on disk after it is last read With these options selected files are flushed as soon as the last replica has been completely written to tape However...

Page 61: ...sk a preset time after writing unless the file is read within a possibly different preset time Select both the Flush written files from disk and Flush read files from disk boxes Select the required ti...

Page 62: ...merging them into larger container files for long term archival storage some email archiving systems work this way Because the incoming files such as individual email messages are valuable they shoul...

Page 63: ...f information retained for the History Explorer Part of the information shown by the History Explorer is the creation date of every version of a file This information is stored in the file s metadata...

Page 64: ...to write data to tape as soon as the application has finished writing the first fragment rather than waiting for the application to write the entire file To do this enable file fragmentation see Step...

Page 65: ...e nTier system You can also select the file using the Archive Management Console When you open the file the nTier File Migrator software retrieves the file either from the RAID disk in the nTier or fr...

Page 66: ...ime that you use this feature ActiveX is required in order to access the Windows desktop through the BlueScale web interface 2 From the nTier Windows Desktop start Microsoft Internet Explorer version...

Page 67: ...t pane and deleted files appear in the right pane Deleted files are identified with a red cross icon Click on any deleted file listed in the right pane to see its history in the bottom pane Opening an...

Page 68: ...ntrols which vary from one model to another In Spectra Logic libraries the BlueScale user interface is used to import and export cartridges If the nTier system is connected to a stand alone tape drive...

Page 69: ...orting an External Tape Importing an External Tape 1 Start the Archive Management Console Start the Archive Management Console on page 48 2 Navigate to the Volume Set configuration section and click o...

Page 70: ...sole Use the following steps to reformat a rewritable tape 1 Start the Archive Management Console Start the Archive Management Console on page 48 2 Navigate to the Volume Set configuration section and...

Page 71: ...is normally used when another application has formatted a tape in a legacy format for example when an AIT tape is formatted in DDS compatible format Once this operation has been performed it is not po...

Page 72: ...age 71 5 Enter the desired information in the Info field 6 Click Update to save your changes Displaying Information About a Tape 1 Start the Archive Management Console Start the Archive Management Con...

Page 73: ...this function to check the integrity of your archived data 1 Start the Archive Management Console Start the Archive Management Console on page 48 2 Navigate to the Volume Set configuration section an...

Page 74: ...er File Migrator archive to another and when rebuilding the archive file system on magnetic disk cache When a tape becomes 98 full the system automatically finalizes it You can also use the following...

Page 75: ...an be written to the Volume Set To write protect a tape 1 Start the Archive Management Console Start the Archive Management Console on page 48 2 Navigate to the Volume Set configuration section and ex...

Page 76: ...Console 2 Navigate to the Volume set configuration section 3 Right click on the Volume Set that you want to delete and select Delete Note A Volume Set can only be deleted if it contains no media and...

Page 77: ...ension a tape cartridge Some drive types do not support the retension operation In these cases the option is not available in the Archive Management Console To retension a tape 1 Open the Archive Mana...

Page 78: ...Chapter 5 Using nTier File Migrator 78 Notes...

Page 79: ...so any files that are subsequently read from the system are restored from tape at the time they are read The Import Data option also loads file and directory metadata but additionally it loads file d...

Page 80: ...way can be read directly from the disk cache without further access to the tape Files are restored in the same state as when they were written to the tape For example files that were deleted are only...

Page 81: ...Diagnostics section 3 Right click on the component and select Disable Re enabling a Tape Drive or Library 1 Open the Archive Management Console 2 Navigate to the Diagnostics section 3 Right click on t...

Page 82: ...ies However in the event of a shortage of blank tapes or a failure of the tape library hardware no data can be written to the system For some applications that require data to be written immediately t...

Page 83: ...Opening the Event Log 1 Connect to the nTier s BlueScale web interface and access the Windows Desktop see Access the nTier Windows Desktop on page 35 Note Refer to the User Guide that accompanied you...

Page 84: ...Properties dialog opens for the event Diagnostic Trace Log It is sometimes useful to be able to see what is happening internally within the system The Trace Log saves a trace of all actions performed...

Page 85: ...log can generate a large amount of information which can scroll past very quickly Right clicking on the System icon reveals the Configure option which brings up a dialog box that allows configuration...

Page 86: ...hnical Support in determining the cause of a problem Tape Drive and Library Diagnostics The nTier File Migrator software provides a comprehensive set of diagnostic information about the hardware under...

Page 87: ...s a cleaning cartridge in the drive In the case of stand alone tape drives or if no cleaning cartridge is available in a tape library the system puts a message in the event log and an indication in th...

Page 88: ...in the event log After consideration of the error message in the event log the system administrator may decide that it is appropriate to ignore the error and continue to use the affected tape s The sy...

Page 89: ...considerations 47 creating file groups 54 file group policies 56 to 64 file groups 55 to 56 volume set replication 51 to 52 volume sets 49 to 53 contacting Spectra Logic 3 D data cartridges See cartr...

Page 90: ...ted versions 67 finalizing tapes 74 to 74 H hardware disabling for maintenance 81 hierarchical storage management See HSM History Explorer description 32 65 opening a file 67 saving a file 68 starting...

Page 91: ...45 Spectra Logic contacting 3 manuals obtaining 9 media sales 3 SpectraGuard Technical Support contacting 3 storage options description 56 setting for file groups 56 to 57 system recovery using tape 7...

Page 92: ...finition 28 W web site obtaining Spectra Logic manuals 9 Spectra Logic home 3 wildcards using to create file groups 25 Windows desktop See Windows Remote Desktop Windows Explorer using to access files...

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