Automedia Management in Tape Libraries

A recurring theme on the NetWorker Mailing List is people not understanding how Automedia Management operates in tape libraries.

Here’s the complete list of what automedia management does when enabled for a tape library:

1. It enables NetWorker to automatically label and use any blank tape (i.e., a tape that does not have a NetWorker label header on it) within the library if and only if there are no other appendable or recyclable volumes in the library to service the pool that requires media.

It does not have anything to do with the following:

1. Recycling volumes within a pool (this is handled automatically, so long as the volume isn’t set for manual recycling)
2. Recycling volumes between pools (this is handled by configuring the pool to “recycle to other pools” and “recycle from other pools”)
3. Inventorying volumes as they are added to the library (this is barcode and NetWorker version dependent)
4. Depositing volumes (this is an operator function)
5. Withdrawing volumes (this is an operator function)