HP Ultiliruim Tape Blade UTB user manual

[Mohamed Darweesh]

Hi All,

I've "HP StorageWorks SB1760c Tape Blade" as a backup solution, but I don't know how to use, any one can help in this please???

Rgds,
Mohamed

[Steven Schweda]

Have you tried visiting hp.com, and putting
the model number into the Search window?
That works for most HP products.

[Matti_Kurkela]

http://www.hp.com/go/support

Select "See support and troubleshooting information".

Type in "SB1760c" to the product field and press Enter.

On the next page, click on "Manuals (guides, supplements, addendums, etc)".

After that, you'll see a page with manuals as downloadable PDFs. (Note: some manuals might be available in multiple languages, others in English only. Use the language selector on the download page if necessary.)

If you find you need drivers, click on "Download drivers and software" in the left side panel.

This procedure for finding the manuals is applicable to all modern HP computer products.

MK

[Mohamed Darweesh]

Thanks Guys, but I've installed this correctly, but I am asking how to perform the Backup using the UTB? i.e. I need to do full backup system for the UTB partner blade?and what's the difference if I need to backup any other blade within my system i.e. C7000 enclosure,blades running RHEL 4U8.

Rgds,
Mohamed

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

You use your favorite tape backup application, of course.

There are too many backup applications to list here; your Linux distribution (whatever it is - you haven't told so far) probably includes a few in its package collection.

If you need to back up other blades, your backup application must also be network-aware - the tape blade is physically connected to one blade only.

The first question is, do you need system backups or data backups? Or perhaps both?

For system backups (e.g. for restoring your complete OS installation as-is to new hardware after the old one has burned to ash) you might want something like Mondo Rescue. It is very likely it's already included to your Linux distribution: just use your package manager software to install it.

http://www.mondorescue.org/

Generally, the frequency of system backups is determined mainly by how often the OS receives upgrades. A system backup typically includes all of the OS, but may or may not include applications and user data.

Sometimes a system backup application assumes there will be only one system backup on a single tape: this makes disaster recovery easy ("boot the blade with this ISO image, insert the newest backup tape and click on Restore" or something similar), but is rather inefficient for backing up user data.

For data backups (e.g. for recovering users' data after they've lost or corrupted it by a mistake), a different solution is usually preferred.

You might write scripts to use basic OS commands like tar or cpio, but this easily becomes a major headache in tape cataloguing. A typical user request might be "I just realized I made a big mistake 2 weeks ago. Could you please restore a copy of file X as it was on or before?"

A good data backup application will keep track of your tapes and what's stored on them for you. Data backup applications usually allow multiple backup sessions on each tape, allowing to use the full capacity of your Ultrium tapes efficiently. They will also track what's been backed up before, allowing you to e.g. take a full backup once a month, and only backup modified files daily/weekly. Depending on the exact strategy chosen, this is called a "differential" or "incremental" backup.

A free example of a full-featured data backup application would be Bacula:
http://www.bacula.org

Bacula might also be available in the package collection of your Linux distribution.

MK