Using R3D Data Manager With Cache-A Devices

 

This document assumes you have physically setup your Cache-A device to be on the same network as the computer running R3D Data Manager, and have mounted the vtape as described in the Cache-A manual.

Initial Setup

Before selecting your Cache-A device as a destination, you must configure how R3D Data Manager will communicate with the device. This configuration is done in the preferences for R3D Data Manager.

 

In the Cache-A tab, select the method you wish to configure your device with, either Hostname or IP address. The hostname is the name of the device as shown in finder. It is normally configured to be "archive" plus the last two digits of the serial number. For the hostname configuration, you just need to enter those two digits. If you changed your hostname or otherwise want to access the device via its IP address, select "IP address" and enter the digits for the IP address in the boxes. Once configured, you should test the communication to ensure that R3D Data Manager and the device are properly communicating.

 

Adding as a destination

Once the device is configured in the preferences, you may add the device as a destination. First, make sure the device is mounted to your system by navigating to it in finder. This ensures the device is ready for writing. In addition, you should already have a tape in the system, initialized, and ready for writing.

To add the device as a destination, select from the menu "Data Manager" > "Destinations" > "Add Cache-A Device", or use the keyboard shortcut command-shift-S. This will show a list of mounted volumes. Select the "vtape" volume. R3D Data Manager will ensure the device exists and create a special temporary folder on the device.

The Copy and Writing Process

With the Cache-A device selected as a destination, you can run through the normal copy process in R3D Data Manager. After all the footage is verified on the device, R3D Data Manager will start the process of writing the files to tape. A window small window will popup with the status of the tape writing process.

When the tape is complete, R3D Data Manager will check to see if there were any errors writing to tape. If so, it will display the errors, what files, and what the error was. In this case it will leave all the files on the vtape, so you can manually restart another tape writing process without re-copying the footage to the device. You will also need to remove files from the device once they are successfully archived.

If there are no tape errors, R3D Data Manager will automatically remove the footage on the device, and prepare the device for the next round of footage. This does not remove the files from the archived tape, but just from the internal memory on the Cache-A device.

Cache-A Options

Automatically begin archive process after each successful copy: This option enables R3D Data Manager to automatically start the tape writing once it determines that all the files are on the Cache-A device. With this option disabled, you will need to manually start the archive to tape process.