Active Vault Policy

Active Vault Policy offers a flexible and fully configurable vault policy that makes it easy for you to customize to your vault needs. You can schedule an Active Vault Policy to run automatically at periodic intervals, or manually on demand.

Active Vault Policy uses the following two system parameters to control the start and stop of the vault process:

Note: These two system parameters tie Active Vault Policy directly to Storage Manager used license capacity, allowing you to proactively manage your licensed capacity.

Active Vault Policy uses the following system parameter to select media for vaulting consideration:

You can change the default values of the above system parameters by using the fs_sysparm_override file, or override these values for any individual policy to fit your vault needs, as described below.

Active Vault Policy also offers a wide range of criteria for selection of media to vault. Any combination of the following vault policy options (which come from StorNext command fsactivevault) can be used to select media for vaulting consideration:

• The list of archives or libraries that media could be selected from.
• The list of copy numbers that media could be selected from.
• Whether or not media belongs to the policies listed.
• Whether or not media is in MIGRATE class.
• The minimal time media has not been accessed.
• The minimal used percentage on a media (to override ACTIVEVAULT_FULL_PERCENT).
• The minimal used space size on a media.
• The remaining space on a media if it falls to certain size.
• The override value for ACTIVEVAULT_HIGH_USE.
• The override value for ACTIVEVAULT_LOW_USE.

Refer to the fsactivevault man page for additional information on how to use these policy options.

Active Vault Policy works with multiple vault policies with different vaulting start and stop controls, media selection criteria, and schedules. Each time an Active Vault Policy is run, StorNext invokes the fsactivevault command to control the vaulting process and selects media for vaulting based on how the policy was configured. If system used capacity meets or exceeds the ACTIVEVAULT_HIGH_USE (or its overridden) value, qualified media which meets the configured vault criteria will be vaulted until used capacity is below the ACTIVEVAULT_LOW_USE (or its overridden) value or qualified media is exhausted.

Active Vault Policy also offers useful tools for Active Vault policy planning, validation, and troubleshooting. See Tools for additional information.

1. Configure the library vault; active Vault Policy works with multiple vaults, external or internal to the library. An example of the latter is Quantum's Scalar i6000 Tape Storage Library that provides the ability to store vaulted media inside the library using its unique Active Vault partition capability. Additional configuration steps are required to use an Active Vault partition. Refer to Configure External and Internal Vaults for details on how to configure external and internal vaults.

Note: The Barcode Reporting format of the library must match the StorNext library partition (in other words, you must configure the StorNext library partition to be Standard Six).

2. Create and schedule the vault policy; execute the command fsschedule to create, and schedule an Active Vault Policy.

Note: You can also use the command fsschedule to modify, delete, and report a scheduled vault policy.

Currently, the StorNext GUI can only be used to view, edit, and delete the running schedule portion of a vault policy. You cannot create, edit, or schedule an entire vault policy via the GUI.

Refer to the fsschedule man page for details on how to create and schedule a vault policy, and other available options.

Note: The clnver feature of fsschedule cleans up old versions and instances of files from the database that have exceeded either an optional per-class cleanup interval or the system cleanup interval. Per-class cleanup intervals can be set with the fsaddclass and fsmodclass commands. Setting the per-class cleanup interval to zero disables per-class cleanup. The CLEAN_VERSIONS_EXPIRATION system parameter configures the system cleanup interval. When the system parameter is not configured, the system cleanup interval defaults to seven years. The format of the system and per-class cleanup interval values is an integer followed by an interval factor. For example: 90d (90 days), 5w (5 weeks), 7m (7 months) or 3y (3 years). System cleanup applies to all classes, so per-class cleanup intervals should be shorter than the system cleanup interval to have an effect. For a description of the system parameter, see the fs_sysparm.README file. For a description of the per-class parameter see the fsaddclass.1 and fsmodclass.1 man pages. The system cleanup feature is equivalent to fsclean -t -P, and the per-class cleanup feature is equivalent to fsclean -c <class> -t. When this feature is turned off or locked out, there is no automated purging of database namespace, so you should use the -P option of fsclean to replace the system-wide effect of the clnver feature. For additional information, see the fsclean(1) man page.

Refer to the fsactivevault man page for additional information on the media selection criteria available for a vault policy.

The StorNext command fsschedlock can be used to lock, unlock, and report locks on scheduled Active Vault policies. Refer to the fsschedlock man page for additional information.

Refer to Command Syntax for examples of some of the commands mentioned in this section.

3. Wait for a scheduled vault policy to run, and vault media; the scheduled execution of a vault policy may result in one or more media selected for vaulting. If media was selected for vaulting, the StorNext GUI will issue an Action Required notification to inform you of the required action to complete the physical move of vaulting media from the library to the designated vault.
4. On the StorNext GUI, click the Action Required icon to display the Library Operator Interface screen (alternatively, navigate to Tools > Storage Manager > Library Operator Interface) and complete the media move to the vault. If the vault is external, the vaulted media will be moved to the library mailbox, for manual media removal. If the vault is internal as provided by the Active Vault partition, the vaulted media will be moved directly to the Active Vault partition, bypassing the library mailbox. Refer to Tools > Storage Manager > Library Operator InterfaceTools > Storage Manager > Library Operator Interface for additional information about the Library Operator Interface.

The following procedure allows you to access media contained in the library – “Library Managed” Active Vault partition(s) and control the media's subsequent movement to the host (StorNext) managed “Standard” partition for use.

Access to media located in the Active Vault partition may be needed when files stored on media need retrieval.

The procedure for access and movement of media are managed through a combination of user actions involving the Library Management Console – Move Media wizard and use of the StorNext GUI Library Operator Interface. These steps will include internal use of the I/E element - the mailbox.

Note: It is crucial that the operator should not physically touch (open or close) the mailbox during this process.

Perform the steps below for media access and movement from the Active Vault partition of a library to the StorNext partition:

Note: Normal operations used for management of external “shelf” type media vaulting with StorNext do not require use of the procedures below.

1. Upon the need to access media from the Active Vault partition and usage of StorNext to implement that process has occurred, a Library Operator Interface (LOI) – Action Required icon in the GUI is normally posted. You should disregard any action to the LOI at this time, leaving it for activity later in this process.
2. Open the Operations – Move Media wizard from the drop-down menu on the Library Management Console page. Follow the directions to move through the wizard pages.
3. On the next page, select the Source Partition and Destination Partition as required to gain access to the list of media.
4. On the Select Media to Move page, ensure that the Source Slot Type: Storage Slots is shown (default).
   1. Locate and select the media to be retrieved from the list.

   2. Choose and select the Destination Slot Type: I/E Slots from the selectable menu.

      Note: The choice of I/E slots for the Destination Slot Type is crucial to the movement of media back into the StorNext partition. This I/E selection ensures that the media will be moved to the mailbox where the robot, StorNext and the LOI can access it and update the database correctly.

5. Upon completion of the Library Management Console - Move Media processes, the media will have been moved by the robot to the I/E mailbox.
6. At this time, return to the StorNext GUI – LOI Action Required process. Initiate the sequence of actions required to complete the operations to move the media from the mailbox and return it to storage within the StorNext “Standard” partition of a library.
7. When the media is returned successfully to the StorNext partition, normal activity to access the media, files and tape devices will occur.

This completes the procedures to access media in the Active Vault partition and return it to the StorNext partition.

Below are some usage examples of the Active Vault Policy commands.

List all scheduled Active Vault policies or a specific policy by name

fsschedule [-f activevault | -n name] [-l]

Schedule an Active Vault policy

fsschedule -a -n name -f activevault -p period [-e weekday | -y monthday] -t runtime [-w window] -- activevault_options

Modify a scheduled Active Vault policy

fsschedule -m -n name -p period [-e weekday | -y monthday] -t runtime [-w window] -- activevault_options

Active Vault Policy Options

The -- activevault_options are options specified for the Active Vault Policy. Anything after -- is unique to, and only used for Active Vault Policy.

Refer to the fsactivevault man page for a complete list of valid options and descriptions:

fsactivevault [ -archive a1,... ][ -vault dest ]

[ -copy c1,... ]
[ -used size ]
[ -remaining size ]
[ -age age ]
[ -sort column ]
[ -migrate | -nomigrate ]
[ -pending | -nopending ]
[ -highmark pct ]
[ -lowmark pct ]
[ -fullpct pct ]
[ -report ]
[ -include-policy p1,... ]
[ -exclude-policy p1,... ]
[ -capacity ]
[ -dryrun ]
[ -limit num ]
[ -notify level ]
[ -noheader ]
[ -debug ]
[ -help ]
[ -policy name ]

For example, to schedule an Active Vault Policy named av1 to run daily at 1:00 AM, that vaults from an archive named i6k to a vault named vault01, at most 10 qualified media which have been used for copy number 1, and have not been accessed for at least 1 month:

fsschedule -a -n av1 -f activevault -p daily -t 0100

-- -archive i6k -vault vault01 -limit 10 -copy 1 -age 1month

Active Vault Policy also offers the following features:

• The fsactivevault –report command option is integrated with other vault options to generate a media report tailored to your needs.

• The fsactivevault –dryrun command option reports (but does not carry-out) the media to be vaulted based on the current policy. It is used internally by SNMS to validate a vault policy prior to scheduling or modifying.

• The fsactivevault –notify command option sets level (none, error, warn, info) for email notification.

• The SNMS Active Vault Policy high-level operations are logged in: /usr/adic/TSM/logs/history/hist_01

• The SNMS Active Vault Policy low-level operations are logged in: /usr/adic/TSM/logs/fsactivevault

• Prior to deployment of StorNext configurations that will utilize Active Vault Policy functions in a library, it is recommended that all required firmware, licenses, software and configuration attributes on the library are met.

• When creating an internal vault in StorNext for media vaulting to an Active Vault partition, the vault name must be identical to the Active Vault partitions name. For example, if an Active Vault partition name is VaultA, the StorNext vault name must also be VaultA.

• When managing vaulting processes for media storage within a library, you are required to perform StorNext GUI LOI (Library Operator Interface) activity to complete movement of the selected media to the Active Vault partition.