Inventorying

The inventorying operation detects tapes loaded into a tape device and assigns names to those that have none.

Inventorying methods

There are two methods of inventorying.

Fast inventorying

The agent or storage node scans tapes for barcodes. Using barcodes, the software can quickly return a tape to the pool where it was before.

Select this method to recognize tapes used by the same tape device attached to the same machine. Other tapes will be sent to the Unrecognized tapes pool.

If your tape library contains no barcode reader, all tapes will be sent to the Unrecognized tapes pool. To recognize your tapes, perform full inventorying or combine fast and full inventorying as described later in this section.

Full inventorying

The agent or storage node reads earlier written tags and analyzes other information about the contents of the loaded tapes. Select this method to recognize empty tapes and tapes written by the same software on any tape device and any machine.

The following table shows pools to which tapes are sent as a result of the full inventorying.

Tape was used by...	Tape is read by...	Tape is sent to pool...
Agent	The same agent	Where the tape was before
	Another agent	Imported tapes
	Storage node	Imported tapes
Storage node	The same storage node	Where the tape was before
	Another storage node	Imported tapes
	Agent	Imported tapes
Third-party backup application	Agent or storage node	Unrecognized tapes

Tapes of certain types are sent to specific pools:

Tape type	Tape is sent to pool...
Empty tape	Free tapes
Empty write-protected tape	Unrecognized tapes
Cleaning tape	Unrecognized tapes

The fast inventorying can be applied to entire tape devices. The full inventorying can be applied to entire tape devices, individual drives, or slots. For stand-alone tape drives, the full inventorying is always performed, even if the fast inventorying is selected.

Combination of fast and full inventorying

Full inventorying of an entire tape device may take a long time. If you need to inventory only a few tapes, proceed as follows:

1. Perform the fast inventorying of the tape device.
2. Click the Unrecognized tapes pool. Find the tapes you want to inventory and note which slots they occupy.
3. Perform the full inventorying of these slots.

What to do after inventorying

If you want to back up to tapes that were placed in the Unrecognized tapes or Imported tapes pool, move them to the Free tapes pool, and then to the Acronis pool or a custom pool. If the pool to which you want to back up is replenishable, you may leave the tapes in the Free tapes pool.

If you want to recover from a tape that was placed in the Unrecognized tapes or Imported tapes pool, you need to rescan it. The tape will be moved to the pool you have selected during the rescanning, and the backups stored on the tape will appear in the location.

Sequence of actions

1. Click Settings > Tape management.
2. Select the machine to which the tape device is attached, and then select the tape device that you want to inventory.
3. Click Inventory.
4. [Optional] To select the fast inventorying, turn off Full inventory.

5. [Optional] Turn on Move unrecognized and imported tapes to the 'Free tapes' pool.

   Only enable this switch if you are absolutely sure that the data stored on your tapes can be overwritten.

6. Click Start inventorying now to start inventory.