Tape pool configuration, Tape pool labeling – Brocade Fabric OS Encryption Administrator’s Guide Supporting Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) Key-Compliant Environments (Supporting Fabric OS v7.1.0) User Manual

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Fabric OS Encryption Administrator’s Guide (KMIP)

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Tape pool configuration

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Tape pool configuration

Tape pools are used by tape backup application programs to group all configured tape volumes into
a single backup to facilitate their management within a centralized backup plan. A tape pool is
identified by either a name or a number, depending on the backup application. Tape pools have the
following properties:

They are configured and managed per encryption group at the group leader level.

All encryption engines in the encryption group share the same tape pool policy definitions.

Tape pool definitions are only used when writing tapes. The tape contains enough information
(encryption method and key ID) to enable any encryption engine to read the tape.

Tape pool names and numbers must be unique within the encryption group.

If a given tape volume belongs to a tape pool, tape pool-level policies (defaults or configured
values) are applied and override any LUN-level policies.

Tape drive (LUN) policies are used if no tape pools are created or if a given tape volume does
not belong to any configured tape pools.

NOTE

Tape pool configurations must be committed to take effect. Expect a five second delay before the
commit operation takes effect.There is an upper limit of 25 on the number of tape pools you can
add or modify in a single commit operation. Attempts to commit a configuration that exceeds this
maximum fails with a warning.

Tape pool labeling

Tape pools may be identified by either a name or a number depending on your backup application.
Numbers are always entered and displayed in hex notation. Names and numbers are independent;
it is possible to have one tape pool with the name ABC and another with the hex number ABC.

The following rules apply when creating a tape pool label:

Tape pool names are limited in length to 63 characters. They may contain alphanumeric
characters, and in some cases, underscores (_) and dashes (-).

Tape pool numbers are limited to eight hex digits. Valid characters for tape pool numbers are
0-9, A-F, and a-f.

The tape pool label created on the encryption switch or blade must be the be same tape pool
label configured on the tape backup application.

Refer to the tape backup product documentation for detailed instructions for creating tape
pool labels and numbers.

NOTE

It may be helpful to create the tape pool on the application first to determine possible naming
restrictions, then use the label generated by the backup application to create the tape pool on
the encryption switch or blade.

A tape pool must first be created on the encryption switch or blade before you can label the
tape media and assign them to the tape pool. Failure to observe this sequence invalidates
tape pool-level settings and policies, and default LUN-level settings are applied to the tape
media.

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