Tape Drive Configuration Settings available in Backup Exec for Windows Servers (BEWS)

To view the tape drive configuration settings from Backup Exec console, perform the following steps:

1. Click on the Devices tab

2. Right-click the tape drive that is displayed under either Stand-alone Drives or Robotic Libraries

3. Select Properties

4. Click on the Configuration tab (Figure 1)
 

Figure 1

 

Read single block mode

Select this check box to have this device read only one block of data at a time. If this check box is selected, the drive will read a single block of data at a time, regardless of the size of the buffer block.

Write single block mode
Select this check box to have this device write only one block of data at a time. Selecting this check box provides greater control over the handling of data write errors.

Read SCSI pass-through mode
Select this check box to have this device read data without going through a Microsoft tape device application programming interface (API). Selecting this check box allows the data to pass directly through the device driver and allows more detailed information in the event a device error occurs.

Write SCSI pass-through mode
Select this check box to have this device write data without going through the Microsoft tape device API. Selecting this check box allows data to pass directly through the device driver and allows more detailed information in the event a device error occurs.

Note: Veritas recommends selecting the options above only if the drive is a Shared Storage Device. Shared Storage Devices are usually connected via a fiber channel to a Storage Area Network (SAN). Selecting any of the above options can adversely affect the drive's performance if the device is attached via a SCSI or an IDE channel.

The last line, This drive is setup to create bootable media on overwrite jobs, will only show if a bootable tape drive is attached to the server. This line must also be visible to confirm that an Intelligent Disaster Recovery (IDR) Bootable Tape Image can be created with the tape drive.

Media Types is a new tab that tells Backup Exec software what types of media can be read or written to with the Robotic Library Barcode Reader (Figure 2).

Figure 2
 

Barcode Rules must be configured for the tape device prior to setting the media type to Read/Write, and the Barcode Rules must be enabled for the Robotic Library afterward.