Creating robotic library partitions

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
You can group one or more robotic library slots into partitions. Partitioning robotic library slots provides you with more control over which tape is used for backup jobs. When you create robotic library partitions, Backup Exec creates a storage device pool for each partition. Jobs that you send to a partition's storage device pool run on the media that is located in the partition's slots. For example, if you set up a partition that contains slots 1 and 2 and you want to run a weekly backup only on the media in these slots, you would submit the job to the storage device pool for the partition that contains slots 1 and 2. The storage device pools for robotic library partitions appear in the drop-down menu for the Storage field when you edit the backup job. All storage device pools for a robotic library partition have the same name and display the slot ranges for the partition in parentheses within the name.
Partitions can include any number of robotic library slots.
Depending on the robotic library configuration, the first slot may be numbered 1 or 0. If the robotic library uses a zero-based slot configuration, the Configure Storage wizard uses slot 0 as the first slot for partition 1 and adjusts the starting slot accordingly for all other partitions.
See Reassigning a slot base number for robotic libraries.
When the robotic library is partitioned, Backup Exec searches for the oldest recyclable media in the specified partition only. If more than one media is found that meets the requirements, Backup Exec then selects the media in the lowest-numbered slot; for example, media in slot 2 is selected before equivalent media in slot 4.
You can create a partitioning scheme that best suits your environment. For example, some administrators may create partitions based on users and groups, while others may create partitions according to operation types.
To create robotic library partitions
  1. Do one of the following:
    To view all of the robotic libraries that you can configure partitions for Do the following in the order listed\:
    - On the Storage tab, in the Configure group, click Configure Storage .
    - Select Tape storage , and then click Next .
    - Select Configure robotic library partitions , and then click Next .
    - Select the robotic library to configure partitions for, and then click Next .
    To configure partitions for a specific robotic library Do the following in the order listed\:
    - On the Storage tab, right-click the robotic library for which you want to create partitions.
    - Click Configure partitions .
  2. Specify the number of partitions to create, enter the number of slots for each partition, and then click Next.
  3. Review the storage configuration summary, and then do one of the following:
    To change the configuration Do the following in the order listed\:
    - Click the heading that contains the items that you want to change.
    - Make any changes, and then click Next until the summary appears.
    - Click Finish .
    To configure the partitions Click Finish .