Where to install tape tools

[Malcolm Wade]

I have an environment containing one SAN attached (via NSR) MSL6060 with 2 LTO-2 drives and another SAN attached (via 2 x NSR) MSL6060 with two slave units and a total of 4 LTO-2 drives.

Both these libraries are accessed via Solaris media servers running NetBackup.

After a few issues I keep hearing 'do you have tape tools installed?' to which of course my answer is no because there isn't a Solaris version available.

So, in my environment, can I install tape tools on one of my SMA's, granting it access to both libraries or am I likely to run into issues with Windows grabbing the drives outside of my NetBackup environment?

I note L&TT supports OpenVMS; would that be a better option in my environment? Could I do the same, grant a SAN based VMS server access both libraries and work L&TT from my OpenVMS server?

Thanks,
Malcolm

[Kurt Beyers.]

Malcolm,

Just install LTT on a server that can access the libraries (through the SAN) and the OS must be supported by LTT of course.

For the rest it is your choice on which platform you run it. I do it typically on HP-UX or Windows.

best regards,
Kurt

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

If by 'SMA' you mean HP's "Storage Management Applicance", I am afraid that is not a good idea. I have not tried it, but I know it has a different set of device drivers for the Fibre Channel adapters with a very uniqe parameter setting which might prevent you from full access to the tape devices.

[Malcolm Wade]

Uwe,

Thanks for that info; that's what I needed to hear. No SMA use; looks like I'll head down the 'use a VMS host route' and see how that pans out.

Malcolm