Copy retention sets to tape for air-gapped data protection

In earlier releases, in-place retention was supported. With in-place retention, data objects that are backed up in retention sets are retained in primary storage and tracked in the server inventory. Now, with retention to tape, retention sets are initially created as in-place retention sets, but can be copied to tape for offline storage. By storing a copy of the data at a secure offsite location, you can help to protect the data from onsite disasters and from ransomware attacks.

To store retention sets on tape, you define a new type of storage pool that is called a retention storage pool. You can do so by using the Operations Center or by issuing the DEFINE STGPOOL command and specifying the POOLTYPE=RETENTION parameter setting. When you create the retention storage pool, a new storage rule with the ACTIONTYPE=RETENTION parameter setting is automatically defined. The retention storage rule then starts one or more background processes to copy the retention set to tape. All of the processes to copy a retention set to tape are associated with a single job, which you can use to manage the copy-to-tape operations.