Vault Tracker Feature

The Vault Tracker feature helps you to manage media that are removed from a library and stored in offsite locations. You can:

Identify media that must be sent offsite for storage or brought back from offsite locations.
Move the media automatically in sequence in the library and provide a pick-up list for the operators.
Identify and track media during transit.
Record and track the movement of media that are not used by all MediaAgents or track Foreign Media.
Record and track containers when the media is stored and moved using containers.

Vault Tracker Feature Support and License Requirements

Most users have the capacity-based license that provides all of the Vault Tracker features (that is, Vault Tracker and Vault Tracker Enterprise features). However, if you do not have the Vault Tracker Enterprise license, you are limited to the Vault Tracker features.

Determining If You Have a Vault Tracker Enterprise License

On the CommCell Console ribbon, click Tools, and then click License Administration.

The License Administration dialog box appears.
Click the License Details tab.
Scroll down the list of license types.

If you have the Vault Tracker Enterprise license, then you have access to all of the features.

For information about license requirements, see License Requirements - MediaAgent and Licenses Consumed by Features.

Supported Features

The following table describes the features that are available without the Vault Tracker Enterprise license and with the Vault Tracker Enterprise license.

Features	With the License	Without the License
Export Media after Backup and Auxiliary Copy Operations	Yes	No
Export Media to Virtual Mail Slots	Yes	No
Filter Media by Retention Criteria	Yes	No
Iron Mountain Support	Yes	No
Media Due Back Policy	Yes	No
Media Tracking Between Libraries	Yes	No
Media Tracking from a Library to an Export Location	Yes	Yes
Media Repository	Yes	No
Moving Media Using Containers	Yes	No
Recall Media	Yes	No
Tracking Transit Locations	Yes	No
Vault Tracker Alerts	Yes	No

Supported Components, Libraries, and Drives

All MediaAgents, stand-alone drives, and libraries with removable media are supported for both Vault Tracker and Vault Tracker Enterprise.
Virtual mail slots are not supported for IP libraries, such as libraries that are attached to an ACSLS server.

Moving and Tracking Media Using Vault Tracker

Step 1: Media is exported using one of the following:

Export Media operations
Vault Tracker policies
Backup or Auxiliary Copy operations

Step 2: Media is removed from the library.

Step 3: If media is shipped using a container, the container information is recorded.

Step 4: Media is sent to the destination library. Transit information can be recorded and tracked using pending actions.

Step 5: Once the media arrives at the destination, the media can be managed with a media repository. Spare media in the repository can be brought back with a Due Back policy. In addition, media can be recalled for a specific task, such as data recovery.

In addition, you can keep track of other media outside of the library such as:

Spare media
Active media
Aged and Expired media
Cleaning media

How to Use the Vault Tracker Feature

This topic describes how to use the Vault Tracker feature from start to finish. You do not have to include every step in your process.

Select the media that you want to export from the library.
Export the media.
- For media that must be exported immediately, export the media from a list of available media.
- For media that should be exported once certain criteria are met, define a Vault Tracking policies.
  - A Standard Tracking policy tracks the movement of media between any source and destination.
  - A Due Back policy tracks the movement of spare media that is stored in an offsite location.
- For media that must be exported at the completion of a backup or Auxiliary Copy operation, configure the operation to export the media with the Vault Tracker feature once the operation has completed.
Remove the media from the library. Qualifying media can be ejected from the library's mail slot, or they can be sorted into virtual mail slots that are defined in the library so that these media can be removed by opening the library door.

If media is moved to an offsite location, you can create containers to carry the media.
While the media is in transit, you can track and acknowledge the status of the media using pending actions.
- Use Manual Acknowledgement to track the media manually in the CommCell Browser.
- Use Automatic Acknowledgement to acknowledge automatically all pending actions that are associated with the media providing that the source and destination are locations.
Create one or more alerts to notify you when the actions are completed.
If exported media are needed for a data recovery operation, the media can be recalled using the Recall Media feature.
Iron Mountain customers can generate reports in the appropriate format and mail the reports on a scheduled basis, or save the reports to a target location.
Use the Vault Tracking Report to view information about the media that is managed by the Vault Tracker feature. Information in the report includes pending actions, spare media that are due back, and media that are associated with a Vault Tracker policy.

Permissions and Permitted Actions

The Vault Tracker Operations permission provides users with the ability to create, modify, and delete media movement and tracking operations.

By default, the CommCell administrator account includes the Vault Tracker Operations permission with no restrictions. For other users, the CommCell administrator can establish full administrative access to all operations (create, modify, or delete tracking policies, containers, and so on) for users or user groups by creating a security association:

Create the security association at the CommCell level.
Select a role containing the Vault Tracker Operations permission.
Associate the appropriate users or user groups.

See User Administration and Security for information about:

Creating a new user
Creating a new user group
Creating security associations

In addition, see User Security Permissions and Permitted Actions by Feature for information about the permissions available with the Vault Tracker Operations permission at each level.

Vault Tracking Report

The Vault Tracking Report can be generated to view information about media managed by the Vault Tracker feature, including pending actions, spare media that are due back, movement action history, and media related to a Vault Tracker policy. Each Vault Tracking Report can be generated and saved in HTML, text, and Iron Mountain Report formats. In addition, you can select a style sheet to customize the XML output.

If the Reconciliation option is selected, the report lists all of the media whose arrival is pending at the destination.

If the Due Back option is selected, the report lists all of the spare media or media that will become spare media. The report can be used without initiating actual actions. In addition, an option to filter media based on time range, storage policies, and estimated retention time is available.

See Vault Tracking Report for information about how to generate and customize the report.

Vault Tracker Feature - Storage Information Report

The Storage Information report can be generated by sorting the media based on the export location. This report can then be sent to an offsite person or agency to verify that the contents match the information in the Vault Tracker records.