Hello all,


I'm trying to get my head around exactly what and how a virtual tape
drive system works.

Here is how I see it: VTL is mostly a software product that allows me to
create virtual libraries and tape devices. I can then present those
devices to any host connected to the FC SAN. (I know that some offer
iSCSI but I only want to deal with Fiber in my example). Those virtual
tape drives get written to by NetBackup just like normal tape drives,
but the data really is stored on a central disk subsystem. Using NB
duplication, I can get the data off to real tapes to be vaulted for DR
purposes. 

I guess the first idea that comes to mind is to place a virtual drive on
every SAN attached host and make them all SAN media managers (I know
that Veritas License Cost will make this sound crazy). I could then have
each SAN Media server write it's own data to it's local "Virtual" tape
drive.

Can someone who has a VTL system fill in the holes for me? I'm sure
there are many many more considerations but I'm just at the thinking
phase.


Thanks,

Kris