Autochanger Support
BackupEDGE can automatically load tape or REV media before scheduled backups if your tape (or REV) drive resides in an autochanger* (also called an autoloader, library or jukebox). You can specify which media to load by their magazine position, or by their barcode, if your autochanger can read barcode labels. There is no limit on the number of magazine slots or storage drives that BackupEDGE will control with the standard license.
BackupEDGE Schedules for all platforms (excluding IBM AIX) can automatically insert the correct media required for any particular backup. The user interface also has a manual media manipulation interface.
Media manipulation is performed through the program edge.changer. This utility provides low-level control of SCSI tape autochangers. It does not require any operating system specific utility in order to function. It does provide a platform-independent interface to your autochanger(s).
In addition to the interface, the command line version of edge.changer can be used to view the element status of your autochanger, move tapes, and even manipulate tapes by their barcode labels if your autochanger has a barcode reader installed. A custom API is provided for those wishing to manipulate devices through their own programs.
If you have BackupEDGE installed on multiple machines with peer permissions, the local machine can manipulate media on the remote machine automatically before performing backup operations.