Multiple hosts to multiple SAS drives in MSL4048?

[kunalsahoo]

Sounds complected setup....but i would suggest one simple thing....that will make your life easier...

connect this backup server to the san , all the boxes you said have snapshot facility...
take snapshot of each Lun to be backed up....present them to this server take backup unmount snap shot and delete it.....

this needs to be done every time though :(

[Paul_637]

That's the sort of thing I'm looking to propose. Depends what size of SAN switch they have (and how many ports licensed).

One thing I haven't personally worked with though is the snapshot side of things - does that tend to be a licensed option or is it included in the MSAs? I know it's an additional license on the EVA side of things.

I still need to get up to speed on the differences between the MSA2xxx & the MSA1000's which was the previous MSA I worked with but I know it's a rather different beast now!

Paul

[kunalsahoo]

Hi .........

In MSA2000 you have some snap shot facility ...
with default license....to get more capacity u have to purchase License...

[Marino Meloni_1]

I didn't read all the thread, but I understand you have a 4048 with two drives

You may connect this library one drive to one server and another drive to second server

The main problem is that you need an enterprise backup application or a backup application that is able to support this configuration.

You should have one server that manages both drives, one using the direct attached and the other using it via the media server.

Another option is to partition the MSL4048 and have two virtual libraries one independent of the other each with own robot and drive, and dedicated magazine. You only need latest FW for that, and then you can partition it from the GUI

[Paul_637]

That sounds extremely promising Marino!

Can I confirm that this *isn't* only possible with FC drives? (These are U320 SCSI).

Would one need to purchase an additional robot mechanism or similar then as well?

I'm consious that most (all?) "shared tape" solutions I've found so far are always refering to FC drives (which I'm aware of and have dealt with in the past, although only a single-drive per library).

Any pointers to documentation relating to partitioning info would be extremely appreciated!

Paul

[Marino Meloni_1]

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01868263/c01868263.pdf

enjoy

Marino

[Paul_637]

Thanks for that, very useful for the logical configuration!

However, there's no mention of host connectivity in there but I'll try more searching around "logical library" rather than "partition" which might reveal more...

Paul

[Marino Meloni_1]

In a partitioned library, each host will have dedicated drive, and (due to the partitioning) dedicated virtual picker, plus dedicated slots.
So doesn't matter what you connect to the library, as each virtual is like a single library, you can attach different OS with differnt Backup application, and running both at the same time (only some delay when queuing robot comands, obvioulsy)

[Paul_637]

Fantastic - that's exactly what I wanted to hear! Thanks for the clarification!

Now to get permission to test....

:)