Adding a Media Pool

Before adding a media pool, review the following prerequisites:

• It is desirable for media pools to correspond to logical groups, such as business components (SALES_POOL, MARKET_POOL, etc.) or physical locations (EAST_POOL, WEST_POOL, etc.).

• It is advantageous to locate a pool of media volumes near the backup devices where the volumes are mounted. This avoids the delay that can result when an operator must search elsewhere for the media volume requested by Catalogic DPX.

• If the media pool is used for multiple device clusters, the device clusters and the media pool must be near each other. As you cannot predict the media volumes in the pool for which Catalogic DPX prompts, all free volumes in a pool must be easily available to all device clusters that might need it.

To add a media pool in DPX, do the following:

Web interface

1. Go to Devices & Pools in the sidebar. Switch to the Media Pools tab, then select the Add Media Pool button in the upper right corner. If you have added a device cluster through the web interface and kept the Automatically create corresponding media pool Toggle on, some media pools (with the mp- prefix may already be on the list. They will be of Disk Directory type. See Adding a Device Cluster.

The Add Media Pool dialog will open.

1. Specify the Media Pool Name. The name may only include alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), underscores (_) and hyphens (-). No other special characters are allowed. The name cannot be longer than 48 characters. The field is case-insensitive.

2. Select Media Pool Type. Currently, three types are available in the web interface:

   • Disk Directory

   • Cloud

   • Tape

   For other types, head to the desktop interface.

If you select Tape, complete the following fields:

• Media pool name. The name may only contain alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), underscores (_) and hyphens (-). No other special characters are allowed. The name cannot be longer than 48 characters.

  Note. Media pools used with libraries controlled by the interface of the manufacturer require special naming conventions. For more information, see Special Media Pool Naming Conventions below.

• Media type. Select the media type you will be using with the respective device cluster.

• Min. number of free volumes. Enter the minimum number of free media volumes allowed in the pool. When the number of free volumes falls below this number, Catalogic DPX issues a warning message. A practical threshold value is 2 times the number of drives. This quantity ensures you receive warnings early enough to acquire new media volumes.

• Append offsite toggle. Toggle on for DPX to append tape libraries with the Offsite status to the alternate pool. In this case, you must enable the Append Offsite option in the backup job’s Destinations. Or, toggle off so that DPX does not append the tape library with the Offsite status to the alternate pool.

• Description. Enter an optional description of up to 48 characters.

• Available tape pool. You can specify the alternate tape pools for the tape libraries (if available).

• Recycle expired tape toggle. When Catalogic DPX uses a tape from an alternate pool, it becomes part of the primary pool. Catalogic DPX allows you to recycle those volumes back to the alternate pool upon expiration. Toggle on to recycle expired volumes for the alternate pool. Or, toggle off so that the volumes in the alternate pools remain in the primary pool upon expiration.

If you select Cloud, an additional AWS S3 Storage Class drop-down will appear. There are three classes to choose from:

• STANDARD

• GLACIER

• DEEP_ARCHIVE

These are just types of AWS S3 subscription plans. You can learn more from the provider’s website.

1. Optionally, you can add a brief description (max. 48 characters).

2. Click Save. The Media Pool is now added.

Note. For Disk Directory, media pools are automatically created with 100 volumes.

Desktop interface