Sharing MSL4048 between two backupservers

[Harald Amundsen]

Hi

Is it possible to share a MSL4048 with two SAN-enabled LTO4-tapedrives between to backup hosts/server?
I have configured the MSL4048 to use two logical libraries, and zoned the tapedrives to be hosted from two different backupservers with Backup Exec 12.5
Both backupservers is showing the autoloader device (24slots each) with one tapedrive each. Server 1 is able to run backup, but server 2 is not.
Is the MSL4048 supposed to support this kind of configuration?

[Pieter 't Hart]

No, you should not share the tape-drives amongst multiple servers.

Backup-Excec as many other backup software will split the backup in modules.
- a backup server wich only controls (schedule, log) the backup process.
- a backup agent, wich collects the data on the server to be backed-up.
- a (or multiple) media server(s), that controle a backup-device (tape-drive).
look into this option of your backup software.

You may be able to present one drive to system-A and the other drive to system-B.
If you got an autoloader this should only be presented to a single system.
The other can only access the drive, not the loader.

[D. Jackson_1]

I would say yes it is possible but would seem like a pain to manage. Slots would have to be hidden and device locks. Just call it the PITA backup system.

I wouldn't do it.