Reserved Volumes

You can reserve volumes for a specific system in a data center. Reserving a volume restricts the volume so it can be used only on the named system and not on any other system in the data center. When a reserved volume expires and is released back to the scratch pool, it remains reserved for the specified system. The volume cannot be reserved by another system until the reservation is removed. You must remove the reservation by selecting option 8, Remove Reservation, from the Volume Options window.

Volumes from the scratch pool are used first for a backup. Robot Save uses scratch volumes reserved for a system and then uses unreserved scratch volumes.

Volumes can be reserved in two ways:

• Mark the volume as reserved

• Use option 7, Reserve for one system, on the Volume Options window. Use option 8, Remove Reservation to release the volume so it can be used by any other system. You can mark volumes used in ad hoc operations as reserved for a system.

• Automatic reservation

• If a volume contains unexpired data (from any backup class/set/rotation) and you select either option 9, Remove Media Volume, from the Volume Options window, or move the entire rotation to the scratch pool, the volume is removed from the rotation but is marked as reserved to the system where the removal was done.

• A volume that contains unexpired data and has been flagged as being in error is marked as reserved if you select option 1, Ignore unexpired data, from the Error Resolution panel. This allows the volume to be used on the reserved system even though it contains unexpired data. We recommend that you do not use this option.

You cannot remove the reservation for volumes that have been reserved automatically by selecting option 8, Remove Reservation. The volume must be used by another backup set or in an ad hoc tape operation; after it has been used, you can remove the reservation.