Using device groups with a changer

ARCserveIT uses the concept of grouping storage devices to give you the maximum performance in your data security efforts. One of the advantages to grouping drives, is spanning. With standard device drives, you would need to chain together several drives to use spanning.

When you use a changer, the process becomes completely automated using only one media drive. The changer takes care of swapping media in and out of the drive. You can go home at night, knowing that your data will be successfully backed up, even if the process requires more than one media.

When you are using a changer containing more than one drive, there are a few simple rules to remember concerning the grouping of these drives:

• It is recommended that each device be in its own group.
• Each device `owns' a range of slots, or tapes. So, if your changer supports four drives and 120 media, you would probably assign each drive 30 slots.