2 Virtual Tape Devices
In this chapter:
•
Overview (page 10)
•
Emulation types (page 10)
•
Creating and configuring Virtual Tape Devices (page 11)
•
VTL devices on Fibre Channel (page 13)
•
VTL devices on an Ethernet network (not HP B6000) (page 14)
Overview
Virtual Tape Devices are backup targets on the HP StoreOnce Backup System to which the backup
application on the hosts write data. They appear to the host as a locally-attached physical tape
library or autoloader, but physically, they use disk space on the HP StoreOnce Backup System
which, as in tape terminology, is referred to as slots or cartridges.
Each storage slot contains a cartridge. The difference between an autoloader and a library is that
a library can support multiple tape drives whereas an autoloader only has one tape drive. Libraries
provide considerable storage capacity and full support for tape rotation strategies. (It may be
necessary to upgrade your backup application to support libraries.)
Emulation types
The HP StoreOnceD Backup System supports a wide range of library and drive emulation types.
The options available vary according to the HP StoreOnce Backup System model. If the emulation
type is not in the dropdown list on the Devices page of the Web Management Interface, it is not
supported on your model. For example, the HP D2D2500 Series does not support the ESL-e and
EML-e Library emulation types.
•
D2DBS Generic Library:
This is a tape library device which allows you to configure many
drives per library and many cartridges per library
G3 products
◦
HP B6000: up to 192 drives per node and up to 16384 cartridges per library
G2 products
◦
HP D2D2502/2504: up to 16 (HP D2D2502) and 32 (HP D2D2504) drives per library
and up to 96 cartridges per library
◦
HP D2D4106/4112: up to 64 (HP D2D4106) and 96 (HP D2D4112) drives per library
and up to 1024 cartridges per library
◦
HP D2D4312 and HP D2D4324: up to 200 drives per library and up to 4096 cartridges
per library
Discontinued G1 products
◦
HP D2D2503: one drive per library and up to 48 cartridges per library
◦
HP D2D2502/2504: up to four drives per library and up to 48 cartridges per library
◦
HP D2D4004/4009: up to four drives per library and up to 96 cartridges per library
◦
HP D2D4112: up to four drives per library and up to 144 cartridges per library
If it is supported by your backup application, D2DBS Generic Library is the preferred emulation
type to be used because it does not emulate any physical library types in existence and is,
therefore, clearly identifiable as a StoreOnce device. It is the most flexible emulation type
available; however, backup application support varies by software vendor.
10
Virtual Tape Devices