Features and Benefits of Media Validation
STA allows you to automate and manage media validation across all libraries in your system. STA-driven media validation has distinct advantages over validation done through the library interface.
Supported Media Types
The library models support media validation for the following media types:
- SL150 - LTO media validation only
- SL3000 - LTO and T10000 media validation
- SL4000 - LTO and T10000 media validation
- SL8500 - LTO and T10000 media validation
LTO9 Details
The following behavior is specific to LTO9 calibration side effects specific to virgin LTO9 media and do not affect calibrated LTO9 tapes or any other prior LTO generation.
- On SL8500 or SL3000 libraries, when the host mounts virgin LTO9 media and then a dismount/unload/rewind action or similar is sent to the drive while it is calibrating, more than 1 exchange (some incomplete) may appear on STA for the same drive and tape.
-
On SL8500 or SL3000 libraries, when an MV is requested by either (STA or other) on an LTO9 virgin tape, during the MV itself, more than 1 exchange (some incomplete) may appear on the exchanges OV for the same LTO9 drive and tape. This is dependent on whether the library returns an error code as a result of the library or other client trying to dismount the tape while the LTO9 drive is calibrating. Additionally, the MV OV for the LTO9 MV request may show the following:
MV Incomplete, MV Library Error=1336, and MV Status Information=”MV manager cancelled. Library returned errorCode=1336”.
- On SL4000 libraries, when the host mounts virgin LTO9 media and then a dismount/unload/rewind action or similar is sent to the drive while it is calibrating, more than 1 exchange (some incomplete) may appear on STA for the same drive and tape.
- Go to /Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/domains/TBI
- Edit MdvConfiguration.properties.
- Change the following 2 lines from (times are in
msec):
<entry key="validationTimeoutCartStat">3600000</entry> <entry key="validationTimeoutMediaStat">7200000</entry>to:
<entry key="validationTimeoutCartStat">7200000</entry> <entry key="validationTimeoutMediaStat">9000000</entry> - Save and exit the file.
- Restart STA.... STA stop all; STA start all.
Increased Security with Reduced Cost and Complexity
Media validation is done internally by the drives themselves, providing several advantages over validation methods offered by other vendors. Data in your tape library system is kept secure because there is no need to send it across a network to a separate application. Costs are reduced because there is no need for a dedicated host server or additional host software to read information from the media and drives, and there is no need for additional Fibre Channel data connections to the drives.
No Disruption to Library Production Operations
Validation drives are not available for use by host applications, but if a host requires media that is being validated, the host request takes priority. The library interrupts the validation, dismounts the media from the drive, and makes the media available to the application. This is done transparently to the application.
Assurance of Valid Test Results
To confirm the validity of all media validation tests, STA provides optional drive calibration and qualification features. Calibration ensures that validation drives are in good working order, and qualification ensures that the validation drives remain calibrated and failed validations are the result of problems with the media, not the drive. These features operate without user intervention once they are configured and enabled.
Automated Validation Operations
With STA, you can define policies for automatically selecting media for validation. For example, you could define policies to initiate validations whenever media health falls to Action or whenever a drive detects a bad media information record (MIR). STA automatically queues the media for validation on a compatible drive. STA can initiate and process multiple validations simultaneously, depending on the number of drives you have set aside for validation activities.
User Management of Validation Requests
You can use STA to manage the validation request queue. You can reprioritize pending validation requests, cancel in-progress requests, and initiate validations manually.
Limit to Validation Frequency
To prevent the overuse of data media, STA does not allow a piece of media to be validated more than once in a 24-hour period. This applies to both manual and automated validation requests.
Comprehensive Reporting of Validation Results
STA displays the results of all validation activities performed in your tape library system. This includes validations initiated by other applications, such as Oracle's StorageTek SLC and Oracle's StorageTek Storage Archive Manager (SAM). STA analyzes validation results and makes recommendations for action you should take.
When a media validation is in process, the drive is reserved to the initiating application and not available to any others. Oracle recommends performing media validations through one application at a time to avoid potential drive reservation conflicts.
Media Validation Feature Comparison for STA and the Library Interface
STA provide significantly more media validation features than the library interface.
An X indicates the feature is supported by that product.
| Feature | STA | Library Interface |
|---|---|---|
|
Configure the validation drive pool. |
- |
X |
|
Support all verification test types. |
X |
X |
|
Automatically mitigate false-positive validation results. |
X |
- |
|
Calibrate validation drives. |
X |
- |
|
Automatically perform ongoing qualification of validation drives. |
X |
- |
|
Perform one validation at a time. |
X |
X |
|
Perform multiple validations at a time. |
X |
- |
|
Perform validations in multiple libraries or complexes at once. |
X |
- |
|
Perform automated, policy-driven validations. |
X |
- |
|
Submit multiple validation requests to a user-managed request queue. |
X |
- |
|
Reprioritize pending validation requests. |
X |
- |
|
Display progress indicators for in-progress validations. |
X |
X |
|
Display validation results one at a time. |
X |
X |
|
Display multiple validation results at one time. |
X |
- |
|
Display validation results in table and graph form. |
X |
- |
|
Display validation history over a selected date range. |
X |
- |
|
Display detailed validation failure and disposition information. |
X |
- |
|
Report indications of marginal tape quality (on selected drive firmware versions only). |
X |
- |
|
Receive alerts about validation results. |
X |
- |
|
Display dashboard summaries of validation activity. |
X |
- |
|
Receive emailed executive reports summaries of validation activity. |
X |
- |