Connecting SDLT160/320

[Mohamed K Ahmed]

Dear all, I have a question but here is the archeicture first:
I have 2 ES40 machines running Tru64 UNIX V 5.1B, both have HSG80 controllers connected to a switch then the switch has a connection with a SCSI KGPSA card at the host.
The switch is shared between the 2 systems by using zoning on the switch.
I am planning to get a new SDLT MSL5026 160/320 and hook it up to one of the hosts (Say host A) through SCSI card.
The question is, can this Tape library be able to see the disks of host B and be used to back them up through the switch? (not through the network?

OR

If I want to implement SAN and connect the Tape drive to the switch via a Modular Data Router, how can I achieve the goal of tape drive being able to backup up both systems (my delimma is the loader, which host wil control it?)

Any comments, thoughts would be appreciated

[Curtis Ballard · Accepted solution]

If you want both hosts to see the tape library and be able to backup without using the LAN then you will need to get a fibre bridge for the library and connect the library to the switch.

You don't say what software you are planning to use for your backups. If your software is SAN capable then it should be able to designate one of the servers as the server in control of the robotics and the other server will issue requests back to the server that controls the robotics but both servers can write directly to tape over the fibre channel connection.