Retrieving

Possible Locations

Digital files can be in one of three locations (except for in rare circumstances): the ARCHive, LTO tape, or the Digital Hub. There are many nuances when it comes to determining where an object might be, so we have built out tools to search several at one time. The ARCHive is intended to be higher-level/"colder" storage, so we do our best to access copies there less often. This means that we should search for an item on LTO tape and the Digital Hub first.

A brief key to what was written where is as follows:

• 2010 -- 2017: All digital files are written to LTO tape(mostly LTO5, and later some LTO7).
• 2017 -- 2022: All mezzanine copies are written to LTO tape, and all preservation copies are written to ARCHive.
• 2022 -- present: All mezzanine copies are written to hub mezzanine shares, and all preservation copies are written to ARCHive.

Searching LTO and Hub

We currently use the retrieve-file.sh script to search for items in the hub and on LTO tape.

• In this script, you will need to configure the variables of OUTPUT_DIR (the directory where you want to deposit retrieved files, NETWORK_DRIVES (paths to all of our shares in the hub), and LTO_LOGS_DIR (the path to the folder that holds all log files from LTO tapes that we have written).

The script is not executable, and will need to be called (bash path/to/script.sh). This script begins by checking whether all network drives and locations are currently connected. If not, it will fail, and you will need to connect to all of the hub shares and the location where the LTO logs are stored. From there, it will ask for the filename of the object you are looking for. It uses a wildcard at the end of the string, so inputting "bma_230" would still pull results of "bma_2304," "bma_230-user," and so on. If it locates any files, it will list those files and their locations for you to choose from. You will need to enter the number of the option you want to copy to proceed.

Pulling the File

The option you select will either be from a hub share or an LTO tape. If it's from a hub share, the script will automatically copy the file to your output directory and verify the checksum. You are done. If it's on an LTO, it will prompt you to load the LTO tape (you will need to be working at a station with an LTO drive). (To locate the tape and read more about LTO tapes, see this page). Follow these steps:

1. Power on the LTO Drive and wait for the indicator light to illuminate solid.
2. Load the tape and wait for the light to stay solid again.
3. Hit ENTER to proceed in the script.
4. The script will copy any files matching the searched for string to your output directory. It will then "unload" the tape, which means it is no longer mounted to the machine.
5. Eject the tape from the drive and return it to storage.

Searching ARCHive

If the object was not on the hub or LTO tape, the last place we can search is ARCHive. Follow these steps:

1. Click AIPs on the top navigation bar.
2. Enter the object's unique ID in the Object identifier value field and click Submit.
3. Any matching copies will display in results. On the right of each option, there will be a Request copy link. Click this for the one you want.
4. On the "New Copy Request" page, click Request Copy.
5. The copy request is scheduled, but may take a few minutes or longer to be copied to the ARCHive server. Once the copy request shows up under the "Recently Finished Requests" list, the transfer is complete.
6. Connect to the ARCHive server and copy the file from the /export folder.