Can I share one LTO Ultrium tape drive beetwen two hosts on single LVD bus?

[Victor Lipin]

This is a ServiceGuard cluster. Tape drive will be used on scheduled basis.

[Ian Dennison_1]

If you use a SAN in between the servers and the drive, then yes.

If you want 2 servers to control 1 drive, I don't think it will work. How 'hands-off' is the ServiceGuard implementation supposed to be?

However, if you insist on this, follow this link

http://www.apcon.com/6x4.php

Never used it before, but it looks like an elctronic SCSI version of the old printer switches we used to see (Remember A and B position on the dial?)

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Ian Dennison_1]

Found another, a little cheaper,...

http://www.paralan.com/ss1.html

Basically, www.google.com, look for 'SCSI Switch'. Stacks of stuff there.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,

Even if ther is SCSI-switches avilable on the market it is perhaps easier to use two drives (one for each host).

A SAN solution is of course possible but will be very expensive. In addition to the hardware you need an application with some kind of device locking which prevents from both hosts accesing the drive at the same time.

Perhaps the best method to share a drive is if one of the hosts uses the drive remote (backup over LAN).

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

If you want to use your Ultrium from 2 servers (or more), there is the perfect solution: use Omniback!

Omniback can also be successfully implemented under an MC/ServiceGuard environment, so it is the perfect choice for you.

HTH,
Vince

[Victor Lipin]

OmniBack? For bootable (Ignite) backup? H-m-m...

[Victor Lipin]

So, I can't connect tape drive to a single shared bus, like disks? Without any SCSI multiplexers and FC-to-SCSI bridges.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
If Ignite backups and you have another HP-UX box in your network there is another perfect solution. Install an Ingnite server, then you can back up all your HP-UX computers over the LAN.

[Vincent Farrugia]

Helo,

No, tape drives cannot be connected to a shared bus; that is a big no-no. A lot of SCSI hell will happen if you do that. The idea of the ignite server is an excellent one.

HTH,
Vince

[Sunil Sharma_1]

Hi,
yes you can do it but it's not recomended setup.
it works fine i tested it in my setup where i have 2 HP servers and one DLT drive. but on that scsi channel no other device was there and SCSI adapter id to be changed.
SS