Backup with Autoloader needs Autoloader Agent, which is an add on to Stratesave Standard. When Stratesave needs a tape during backup or restore, instead of showing a dialog asking to put the tape into drive manually, it passes the request to the autoloader, which then moves the tape from defined storage slot to the tape drive. When the tape is no longer needed by Stratesave, it ranges it back to its slot.
Stratesave supports 2 modes for using tape autoloaders. Either through Windows 2000/XP Removable Storage Manager (RSM) service. The other mode is accessing SCSI tape autoloaders directly, without RSM. Normally RSM is used to manage Autoloaders, so this is recommended selection.
Autoloader and RSM
Windows 2000/XP has the Removable Storage Manager (RSM) builtin. RSM takes control over all autoloaders on the system. Applications which need a tape can then pass the request to the RSM, instead to the autoloader directly, so several applications can share an autoloader. The RSM service has its own controlling interface (Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Removable Storage). Be sure to set the user interface in "full view" mode (Menu View -> Full), otherwise many features of RSM are not visible.
RSM supports Barcode scanners, Cleaner cardridge management, Media Pool Security, and Offsite Storage. These are handled entirely by RSM, and are not influenced by Stratesave. If needed, these features can be configured through RSM controlling interface.
RSM organizes tapes in media pools. Stratesave enters its new tapes or Stratesave tapes from Import media pool to media pool Stratesave\Device-type (e.g. Stratesave\4mm DDS). Stratesave also recognizes its tapes from other media pools, so you can move tapes to another media pool, and define a different organization of pools and tapes if desired.
Stratesave automatically installs the DLL STSMLL.DLL to RSM, which is necessary for RSM to recognize Stratesave labelled tapes. This is done automatically when Stratesave tape is mounted by RSM, but it requires Administrator privilege. If you want ordinary users to be able to backup to RSM managed tapes, Administrator must mount a tape with RSM at least once.
Normal unprivileged users can use tapes mounted by RSM for backup, but with default RSM security settings, tapes must be initialized by Administrator, and tape option Initialize media during backup automatically when needed does not work for normal users.
RSM can't be used during Disaster Recovery (ASR) for local restores. Autoloaders must be accessed in direct SCSI mode, or tape must be put into drive manually during Disaster Recovery.
SCSI Autoloader directly accessed
Stratesave allows SCSI tape Autoloaders to be accessed directly. Usually the best is to use RSM instead. Direct access might be best if either Autoloader is shared with another application, which requires RSM to be turned off, or if it is only used by Stratesave, and the direct access, which usually works with less tape mounts, is preferred. For this to work, Removable Storage Service must be set to Disabled. RSM service can be turned off as follows. From Control panel, go to Administrative Tools -> Services. Find service Removable Storage (Service name NtmsSvc). Stop the service, and change Startup type from Automatic to Disabled. Please note that services Remote Storage Media and Remote Storage Engine depend on Removable Storage Media, and can't start if RSM is disabled. These services are used to automatically migrate rarely used files from disk to tape, and recover them in case they are still accessed. These services can't be used if RSM is turned off on Windows 2003/2000/XP.
The slot-number of the volume is defined in the same dialog with the volume name. Autoloaders with barcode scanners are supported, but Stratesave makes no use of the barcode scanner, since the slotnumber is defined in macro, and therefore known to Stratesave. Stratesave can handle simple problems automatically, for example if a tape is not ranged after backup, and next backup is stored on another tape, Stratesave will then range the previous tape first, before the current tape is loaded from its slot. If Stratesave can't find the defined tape in its slot, or it doesn't know where to range a tape which is already in drive, or if the autoloader is malfunctioning, backup is halted, and the problem will be shown in an error dialog. It is important that every tape has its volume name, and its slot number labeled on the cover, so in the worst case the tape can be ranged manually.
You can combine loading tape with SCSI autoloader and manual inserted tapes. If you don't specify a slotnr for a given tape volume, Stratesave prompts you to insert tape during backup. Manual tape mount is useful for rarely used tapes, e.g yearly backup tapes, while the frequent daily and weekly tapes are handled by autoloader.
See also: Dialog Tape devices and options