D2D130 Larges disks, Tape attach

[michael andersen]

It would be nice if you could reach the physical tape device from you backup software, so that you could also use it for other backup operation, and not just for copy from virtual tape jobs. Does anyone know if this is possible somehow?

Our unit has 4 x 750GB, does anyone know if I could easily exchange those drives with 4 x 2TB fex, and increase the capacity of the unit?

Is there an official guide for replacing one or more disks?

Thank You,

Michael

[thomasr]

It is not possible to directly backup to the tape drive. It's one of the tradeoffs with tape offload -- either you have both the D2D and physical tape visible to the backup application (but then you have to go through the backup server to copy from VTL to physical tape, and you might have to pay licensing for two tape targets), or, the tape drive is hidden behind the VTL appliance and all copies to/from tape are controlled by the VTL (and you don't have to license the 'hidden' tape drive).

I don't know if it's possible to swap out disks for larger disks; I suspect that the unit you bought is only licensed for its original capacity, and additional space won't be recognized.

As you've probably noticed, disks in these units are not hot-plug; it's necessary to power the system down to replace a disk.

All of the system firmware (the boot code that turns it in to a D2D Backup System) is stored on internal USB-attached flash memory, so it will be preserved when the system boots, regardless of what happens to the data disks. As long as only one drive fails, the RAID 5 on the D2D 100 family will preserve data when that drive is replaced.

The actual steps are something like...
- Power the unit down through GUI if possible, disconnect power cord from the system.
- Remove side panel (single thumb screw on the back)
- Use three or more fingers in a sort of straddle, to push in the plastic taps that hold the front cover on
- Swing the front bezel around gently like opening a door hinged on the right, and then it will come off when most of the way open.
- Remove the SATA cable and power cable from the appropriate disk
- I believe there's a Torx bolt that needs to be loosened, and a light-blue plastic tab that needs to be lifted up so that the disk can be slid forward (not positive; maybe the bolt stays screwed in).
- Move the Torx bolt from the old disk to new
- Reverse steps above to complete the repair.