ARCMAIN stores Teradata backup data as a series of binary records in a single large file that spans one or more mainframe tapes. Most storage management products, however, store files and directories from a conventional file system.
The Teradata Access Module for Tivoli maps the ARCMAIN backup file to a series of smaller storage objects no bigger than 2 GB. Although no direct correlation exists between Teradata Database/table objects that are stored on the backup and the file segments, the position information passed back to ARCMAIN for seek operations on the backup image indicates the file segment and physical byte offset within the segment. Though ARCMAIN is unaware of the particular storage medium that is used, ARCMAIN is able to reposition to different database objects on the backup image.