Recycling for Archive Copy Retention

As an alternative to the normal recycling process, you can use the sam-nrecycler tool to work with the File System Manager's backup and recovery point features. This tool removes expired archive copies and frees archive volumes to aid in the ability to use SAM-QFS dump files for archive retention. To take advantage of this functionality, you must use this recycler in place of the existing sam-recycler command.

The sam-nrecycler tool scans file system metadata and SAM-QFS dump files to determine which volumes contain archive images. You can invoke the tool through the crontab file at an off-peak time, or at any time using the sam-nrecycler command. The nrecycler identifies all archive images on a removable media volume or in a disk archive tar file by scanning all file system .inodes files and specified SAM-QFS dump files. The nrecycler can then determine whether volumes contain any archive images. The space on these volumes can be reclaimed. If a removable media volume does not contain any archive images, relabel the cartridge. If a disk archive tar file does not contain any archive images, remove the tar file from the disk archive directory.

When sam-nrecycler detects that a removable media volume contains only free or expired space and is safe to relabel, it invokes the sam-nrecycler.sh script. The script can relabel the cartridge using either the original VSN or a new VSN. It can then export the cartridge from the library, or it can perform another user-defined action.

When sam-nrecycler detects that a disk archive volume contains only free or expired space, it unlinks the unused disk archive tar file.

You control the actions of the sam-nrecycler tool by including directives in the /etc/opt/SUNWsamfs/nrecycler.cmd file. You must also specify the path to the directories that contain the SAM-QFS dump files. The list of directories must be complete and all SAM-QFS dump files must be contained in the directory list.

You can also include a logfile= directive line in the nrecycler.cmd file to specify an nrecycler log file. The system writes recycling messages and recycling reports to this file.

For more information about sam-nrecycler(1M), see sam-nrecycler(1M) in Sun QFS and Sun Storage Archive Manager Reference Manual.