How to import and/or export media with the Tandberg RDX QuikStation's IE Port and Backup Exec

Problem

How to import and/or export media with the Tandberg RDX QuikStation's IE Port and Backup Exec

Solution

The IE Port feature of the Tandberg Quikstation serves as a means to remove & retrieve media to/from the RDX drives, similarly to a tape library equipped with a single slot media portal. Enabling and disabling this feature will have different affects in BE (Backup Exec) To enable/disable the IE PORT, access the QuikStation's remote console via its assigned IP address and login. Then select 'Advanced Options' and then go to the 'Tape Import Options' menu.

Figure 1:

Disable Import/Export (IE) slots functionality (recommended)

This feature grants full access to the virtual tape library’s slots for insertion or removal of media. Unfettered access to the slots eliminates the need to run an Import job in BE, when inserting media. The absence of the port tightens the one-to-one relationship of the QuikStation's and BE’s media slots.

Inserting media to the RDX unit

It is recommended to use the Scan or Inventory feature in BE, after inserting media in to the RDX drive(s). The features will read the serial number of the cartridge(s) which is applied to the corresponding slot(s). Use of the BE Import feature is not recommended because the portal, although disabled, still reports an element address. The presence of the element address will trigger an alert to insert media in to the portal. This may cause BE to loop, requesting insertion/removal of media from the portal.

Retrieving media from the RDX unit

Use of the BE Export feature is necessary to dismount media in the RDX drive(s). Run the Export command in BE on the desired slot(s) and the RDX cartridge(s) will be released.

Enable Import/Export (IE) slots functionality

When enabled, all RDX media passes through a virtual IE media portal, similarly to a physical tape library single slot media portal. Each RDX drive correlates to an internal virtual slot in the unit.

Figure 2: 

Media is imported to the BE slots one at a time.  The use of the BE Import & Export features are the recommended means for insertion & removal of media. The standard BE alert to remove/insert media in to the portal will be presented at the appropriate time...regardless if moving single or multiple RDX cartridge(s).

BE Import job

To Import media, run an Import job before inserting the RDX cartridge in the drive(s). Otherwise, the QuikStation’s IE Port will appear full to BE and this will cause the following alert to appear: "Please remove the media from the portal..."

BE Export job

After the RDX cartridge has been dismounted from the RDX drive, BE will post an alert to remove it from the portal. Acknowledging the alert will:

1) End the job for single cartridge exports.
2) Dismount the next cartridge for multi-cartridge exports.

Best Practices:

• Bulk loading media is treated as FIFO (First-In-First-Out.) If cartridges are inserted in order (Drive01~Drive02, etc…) then they will be "moved" to the corresponding BE slots in that order.
• If media is inserted out of order (Drive02~Drive05, etc…), then media inserted first will move to the first available BE slot and the rest will follow in the remaining order.
• If a cartridge already resides in a BE slot, the next cartridge will be mounted in the next available element starting from Slot1.
• The IE Port should be empty before importing or exporting media. Otherwise BE will post an alert requesting to remove the media from the portal.