How Are Barcodes Used?

Barcodes are becoming more and more popular these days so a better understanding of how ARCserve uses barcodes might help.

Barcode support for ARCserve is selected in the Device Configuration utility. In step 2 were the heading says Assign Cleaning Tape there is a Properties button. Click it to select the option Barcode Reader Installed.

The library maintains its own inventory based off the barcodes on the tape. When the Tape Engine starts up it requests this inventory from the library. Here is a sample from a tape log:

LDN:1 Reporting 20 elements and 1056 bytes of data
LDN:1 B/C[C75257] in slot:0
LDN:1 B/C[C74538] in slot:1
LDN:1 B/C[C74539] in slot:2
LDN:1 B/C[C74537] in slot:3

The barcode will match up to the tape serial number, so the next step is to match these barcodes with tape serial numbers recorded in the Database.

Querying DB for Serial# 'C75257'
Querying DB for Serial# 'C75257' Time 933375609
Finished Querying DB for Serial# 'C75257' Time 933375890

If a match is found then the inventory is updated accordingly. If a match is not found then this happens:

DB query Failed, for Serial# 'C75257'
LDN:1 Error:2 Tape Info not available for SerialNo:C75257, Must READ in tape.

As the log reports the tape will be loaded into a drive to see if it has a header. If it does then the database is updated accordingly. If the tape is blank a registry entry is made to keep a record of the barcode for the blank tape.

If a tape was used and then later a barcode was added the serial number would not match up to the barcode. To correct this, wait until you can erase the tape. Then do a Quick Erase Plus on the tape, and right after stop and then restart the Tape Engine.