Tape Management System

General Services - Records Management provides the resources for storing backup files in our climate controlled vault. This service is important in order for a user department to recover files which have been deleted from the hard disk, or from a disaster at their location in which the files have been destroyed. Local Area Network (LAN) backup tapes and mainframe backup tapes are the most commonly stored files.

The LAN remote backup service is performed by rotating the daily backup tapes through Records Management on a weekly basis. Five weekly tapes are prepared and identified with a label containing the user department name, identification number and week number. (Five tapes are required in order to accommodate those months with five Sundays.) The tape labels also contain a bar code for computer entry. These tapes are stored in our off site vault for rotation. Each participating user is designated one day of the week for the Records Management Courier to deliver/pickup their tape.

On the scheduled day the Records Management Courier will pick up the current weeks tape from the department, and drop off the following weeks tape. On any given day there are four weekly backup tapes filed in the off site vault.

The last tape of the month (either number 4 or 5, depending on the month) is placed in archive and held in the off site vault for 3 years. A blank tape is furnished by the user department to replace the archived tape.

Mainframe backup tapes are stored at the off site vault and rotated on a daily basis. The rotation is controlled by the MIS Operations Department.

Records Management has 450 active LAN tapes and 700 active mainframe tapes which are in rotation, plus 5225 inactive LAN tapes which are archived.