HP Surestore 2/20 4/40 tape lib

[Lacrosse]

Is it possible to put a 2/20 4/40 or that line of Tape lib on a SAN switch and do backups directly to the tape from disk i.e. serverless backup.....if so what software components extensions etc... are required.

[Marino Meloni_1 · Accepted solution]

wel, you can use it in a san environment, there is a fc bridge card available for that library line, but i never heard about serverless compatibility.
The library was a premergeHP, and HP never had this facility on that library

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Are you asking for Lanfree backup or Serverless (Direct) backup ? The internal FC card for the 2/20 4/40 library can be used for Lanfree backup but don't support Serverless backup.

For Serverless backup you need an external FC-Router (check the support matrix for your backup software).

[Lacrosse]

I would like my data to go directly from the VA7410 on switch to Surestore 6/60
so what you are saying is I could possibly use a external FC router off the switch and could do serverless backup (disk to tape) over SAN??

[Kurt Beyers.]

You need to add a fibre channel interface card into the library. The required part number can be found at http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/automatedbackup/midrange/660series_tape/index.html

Then the backup goes indeed directly from the VA7410 via fibre to the library.

Depending on your backup software, you might need additional licenses. Eg for Data Protector aka Omniback you need to have Unix/NAS/drive licenses (if you don't have them already).

best regards,
Kurt

[Kurt Beyers.]

In that case you have LAN-free backup. But the tape drives will be the bottleneck anyway, so a server-less backup would not decrease the backup time further.

best regards,
Kurt

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Yes, the key for serverless backup is that the FC-router (bridge) must have a "X-copy engine" which is not the case for the internal FC-card for the 2/20 or 4/40 library.

Here ia an example of a such router:
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/n1200/specifications.html

Serverless backup is an advanced concept, you should check that all components in your enviroment is supported (software, HBAs, switches, FC-router etc.).

[Lacrosse]

If you just say ya or nay to this conclusion I will give you 10pts :-)

To make the 6/60 a serverless backup on my SAN I will need

-Fibre interface for the 6/60
-X-copy and possibly some other software extension and additional licenses
-A supported Fibre bridge

anything I'm missing??

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
You don't need a FC-card installed in the library. The library is SCSI-connected to the external FC-router. The X-copy engine is also included in the FC-router (what it mean is that there is support for the Extend Copy protocol in the router).

So you need a FC-router only (the one in my previous ling is actually an standalone version of the internal router in the MSL librarys).

And again, check carefully that all products is supported for working together.