Media Lifecycle Management

July 2013

Media Lifecycle Management 2

Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................... 3

Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3

How MLM Works ................................................................................................. 4

Media Lifecycle Management Health Statistics .............................................................................. 4

Using MLM to Reduce Errors ........................................................................................................... 5

Data Integrity Verification .................................................................................... 7

Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 8

Copyright ©2015 Spectra Logic Corporation. BlueScale, Spectra, SpectraGuard, Spectra Logic, TeraPack, TFinity, and TranScale are registered trademarks of Spectra Logic Corporation. ArchiveGrade, BlackPearl, IntraCloud, and nTier Verde are trademarks of Spectra Logic Corporation. All rights reserved worldwide. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All library features and specifications listed in this white paper are subject to change at any time without notice.

Media Lifecycle Management 3

AB S T R A CT

The data storage industry has depended on tape since its first use in 1951. Tape continues to be a critical part of secondary data storage for both backup and archive applications.

Until now, organizations have relied on backup applications to track information about tape health. The usage information historically has not been stored on the tape itself and therefore lifetime statistics have typically been unavailable. The backup software only has visibility into a tapes’ usage while the tape is in a specific backup environment. Once a tape is moved to a different backup environment, given to a different department or sold on eBay, all usage and error history is lost. Or if the tape is used for archive solution, the application may not store usage and health statistics.

To truly manage a piece of media for its complete lifecycle, from first use to last, it’s necessary to track the tape’s history independent of the application. Media Lifecycle Management, (MLM) built into Spectra Logic Tape Series libraries works with Spectra Certified Media to record all relevant data about each tape, on the tape and provides readily available reporting for easy, time- efficient media management.

MLM is based on a combination of technology that is built into Spectra’s Certified Media and the BlueScale library software. Each time a Spectra Certified tape is loaded into a drive in a Tape Series library, more than forty data points are updated and verified. This data includes overall tape health, error rates, retries, the drives the tape has been loaded into, any associated error messages, and much, much more.

MLM provides this information so customers can proactively identify any tape that may be experiencing problems and pull it from circulation before it causes a backup failure, data restore interruption, or data loss.

INT RO D UC T IO N

Tape storage technologies are continually enhanced. Density and speed have increased dramatically over the last two decades, but the basic usage for tape for secondary storage has remained the same. Data Centers need to store large quantities of data for disaster recovery (backup) or compliance (archive). This data is most efficiently and effectively stored offline on tape and accessed only when needed.

Three features of tape set it apart from any other data storage solution:

The capability of tape to store data offline and optionally offsite

The low power consumption and costs associated with tape storage

Tape’s proven longevity and reliability

Media Lifecycle Management 4

Tape’s crucial role in storing critical corporate information emphasizes the need for a proven media management strategy. Until now, organizations have relied on backup applications to track this information‐‐the information was not stored on the tape. If the tape is used in a different backup application environment, potentially when recovering from a disaster, the tape’s history may be lost.

Other factors about tape also escape tracking by backup software. At several points in a tape’s chronology, data about the tape is either never recorded or not recorded with absolute certainty:

The source of the tape.

The number of times a tape is exported out of the library for storage

The number of times the tape was read from and written to while the tape is in the library.

Tape is a very reliable medium, but like all storage media, it has a finite useful life. Media manufacturers suggest that a tape’s use is comprised of a maximum of 250 full backups (or 20,000 end‐to‐end passes) before it should be retired. However, other factors affect the life of a tape. The health of a tape should be determined by combining usage statistic and failure data to proactively indicate any tape that is reaching the end of its useful life. To manually calculate the health status of an entire tape library would be almost impossible due to the time and labor requirements. Media Lifecycle Management (MLM), built into every Spectra Logic Tape Series libraries, records all relevant data about each tape, stores it with the tape and in the library’s flash memory SQL database and provides readily available reporting for easy, time-efficient tape management.

HO W MLM WO R K S

MLM starts with TeraPack loaded, bar‐code labeled, guaranteed Certified Media from Spectra Logic. Prior to shipment, each Certified Tape is MLM enabled by writing the tape’s barcode label, the date, and a unique number for use by BlueScale software to the tape memory chip.

M E D I A L I F E C Y C L E M A N A G E M E N T H E A L T H

S T A T I S T I C S Every time a MLM-enabled tape is loaded into a tape drive all relevant fields are verified and updated. Statistical information includes:

Load count

Number of errors

Used and remaining capacity

Compression ratio

Media Lifecycle Management 5

Encryption status

The last three locations and times of a write operation

The last four drives a tape has been loaded on

The last four non‐zero (implies an error) tape drive completion codes. These include errors that are media related as well as drive errors that could affect media health but aren’t caused by a media failure.

This data is used by MLM to calculate a tape’s health status. This status is displayed through the library’s BlueScale graphical user interface. Spectra Logic’s BlueScale software has 17 years of development and 12 generations behind it.

The BlueScale MLM screen provides users access to health status information about their tape library. The information can be displayed and sorted a variety of ways, always starting with the barcode label and the health indicator. From that screen, each individual tape and its history can be accessed allowing the user to see a tape’s full history at a glance.

Figure 1: Media Lifecycle Management screen

U S I N G MLM T O R E D U C E E R R O R S Media Health Summary: Media Lifecycle Management uses an algorithm to determine tape health status. A value from 0‐100 is assigned by the algorithm to each tape in the library. The value is represented by a green, yellow, or red icon on the MLM Report screen, as shown in Figure 2, letting administrators easily identify the health of each tape.

Media Lifecycle Management 6

A tape with a green icon (or a score of 80 or greater) can be used for both reading and writing data. When the icon turns yellow (score of 50 – 79) it’s best to stop adding data and use the tape for read operations only. Once the icon turns red and the tape’s health drops to a score of 1 - 49, that tape can no longer be reliably used for reading or writing and should be retired.

Figure 2: Media Lifecycle Management reports

Remaining Capacity Report: This report provides the user the ability to sort tapes by their remaining capacity. When combined with the health icon, visible on all report screens, the capacity available can act as a notice to purchase more tape, along with a view of tape health. For example, the capacity remaining on green tapes is the capacity Spectra suggests the user consider writeable—so if that’s getting low the user has notice to order more Certified Media. Alternately, if the media that’s reaching the yellow health stage still has capacity remaining, it’s moving through its lifecycle more quickly than it should and suggests further investigation is necessary.

Load Count Report: The load count report allows the user to sort all the tapes by their load count. Again, this is most useful when combined with the health icon. Tapes with low load counts that aren’t in good health indicate high errors rates or retries. This suggests further investigation.

Write Errors Report: This report lists all tapes sorted by write error count. It’s most useful in cross‐referencing media errors to tape drives. If the recent errors occurred in the same drive or drives, it suggests that the user examine the health of a tape drive as a source of the issue.

Media Lifecycle Management 7

Born‐on Date Report: The born‐on date is the date the media became MLM enabled. Sorting by this date lets users quickly check the age of the tape against its health. If a tape has been in the library for an extended period of time and is still at maximum health, the tape may be underused. If it’s a newer tape but has dropped in health faster than others its age, the tape may be defective.

Note: If a tape is defective, the user can call Spectra Logic support and receive a replacement with an identical barcode label guaranteed.

Cleans Remaining Report: A cleaning tape can only be used a limited number of times. Using a cleaning tape beyond the manufacturer recommended usage number may in fact damage the tape drives. Cleaning tapes are traditionally difficult to track, as they’re moved from partition to partition and backup application to backup application. MLM keeps track of the number of times that each tape has been used to clean a tape drive and reports the number of uses left—the cleans remaining. The Cleans Remaining screen lists just that: the cleans remaining on every cleaning tape in the library, ensuring that no cleaning tape is overused. When a cleaning tape reaches its recommended limit, a BlueScale system message alerts the user to remove the tape from the library.

Exported Media: Lists the MLM-enabled media (both data and cleaning) that has been exported from the library, sorted by the export time (oldest first). This report also shows the user name of the person who exported the media.

Last Write Time / Last Read Time: Shows the time and date for the most recent write and read operations for each MLM-enabled data cartridge.

Each of these reports can be exported via USB key or email – they can also be emailed directly from the library to Spectra Logic support for troubleshooting.

Users can also set alerts so that a system message identifies tapes that have been used a certain number of times and cleaning tapes that are nearing the recommended usage. These alerts can be emailed to the user via the BlueScale environment’s AutoSupport feature.

DA T A INT E G R I T Y VER IF I CA T IO N

Data Integrity Verification (DIV) is an important long-term data reliability feature that ensures data written to tape is retrievable for the life of the tape. With DIV, tapes stored in any Tape Series library are automatically checked for data integrity throughout the storage life of the media.

Organizations are retaining ever-expanding volumes of data to meet long-term business and compliance objectives, and are increasingly storing large amounts of data for extended periods of time. Storage of digital archive data can extend years or decades, and it is critical to ensure the enduring integrity and accessibility of that data. DIV provides confidence to businesses that their backup and archive data will be readily available when needed, regardless of how long it has been stored.

Media Lifecycle Management 8

DIV improves system availability and data integrity by proactively performing background read verification passes of the tape and reporting potentially latent failures.

DIV is composed of three separate functions:

PreScan - Checks newly imported tapes to ensure they are ready to use (e.g. in good health, leader block intact and not write-protected). The PreScan process is performed by the library and is independent of the backup application normally used to read and write data to the tape.

QuickScan - Within 2 to 5 minutes verifies the data was successfully written to tape with a rapid single pass from the beginning of the tape to the end of the first track. Any media degradation is tracked in the library’s flash memory SQL database and reported to users. The Quick Scan process is performed by the library and is independent of the software application normally used to read and write data to the tape.

PostScan - Automatically verifies the integrity of all the data on a tape. Any media degradation is tracked in the library’s flash memory SQL database and reported to users. The PostScan process is performed by the library and is independent of the software application normally used to read and write data to the tape.

CO NC L U S IO N

Media Lifecycle Management helps ensure data integrity by keeping pertinent health information about a tape on the tape. This helps end-users manage their tape library without a significant amount of manual effort. For example, Media Lifecycle Management reports when a tape is nearing or at the end of its lifetime, so that users can remove the tape from the library. This keeps new data from being written to the tape that may then be at risk. This saves data, and the time that would otherwise be spent trying to retrieve data from a tape that should have been retired.

With Spectra’s Media Lifecycle Management and Tape Series libraries customers can protect what’s most important in any data center, large or small, their critical business data.

303-449-6400 • 800-833-1132 • (Fax) 303-939-8844 • 6285 Lookout Road • Boulder, CO 80301 USA • spectralogic.com

Deep Storage Experts

Spectra Logic develops deep storage solutions that solve the

problem of long term storage for business and technology

professionals dealing with exponential data growth.

Dedicated solely to storage innovation for more than 35

years, Spectra Logic’s uncompromising product and

customer focus is proven by the largest information users in

multiple vertical markets globally.

Spectra enables affordable, multi‐decade data storage and

access by creating new methods of managing information in

all forms of deep storage—including archive, backup, cold

storage, cloud, and private cloud.

For more information, please visit

http://www.spectralogic.com.