Hi all y'all,
Yes Curtis, there some really cool tools. One will not need to use VTL's
as you will be able to write to any DASD on any array.
The one thing that I do not like is the fact that SCSI tapes and
libraries are emulated on the VTL's. This I found out the hard way when
we had a glitch on the SAN and had a 6 minute delay connecting to the
VTL. The OS reported a SCSI error.
I personally would rather get away from real tapes and only use DISK. I
would use the replication that I believe will be included in the
software to copy the backup to the offsite facility along with the
catalog.
Kind Regards,
Clem Kruger
-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Curtis
Preston
Sent: 30 August 2007 20:29 PM
To: Tim Hoke; VERITAS-BU AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup 6.5 VTL direct to tape
Confusion, confusion... I just got off the phone with the Symantec
product managers and here's the scoop. There are two different options
in 6.5 that are in this area.
First, neither of these options should be confused with the current way
that integrated VTLs copy virtual tapes to physical tapes, which is the
barcoding-matching method that was discussed in other posts. These
options are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
Option 1: OpenStorage API
Symantec working with "Intelligent Disk Targets" (their term for disk
targets that have a file system interface and do cool stuff like
de-dupe). The idea is for the IDTs to code to this API. Once they've
done that, Symantec will do a whole bunch of cool stuff via this API
that they can't do via a VTL interface. This will include the things
that are available via the Advanced Disk Storage Unit in 6.5, and will
also include other things like optimized de-duplication, direct to tape
copy, etc. (I don't think the direct to tape copy is currently in the
code. That's a future.)
AS OF TODAY, the API is in 6.5, but no Symantec partners have released
products that use it. Some have coded and are testing, but none have
made it available via GA. (My guess would be that the early adopters
here are likely to be vendors like Data Domain whose primary interface
to NBU has been a NAS interface.)
Here's the page on this (although right now the link to the data sheet
is broken).
http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/products/agents_options_details.jsp?p
cid=2244&pvid=2_1&aoid=2_open_storage&tid=options
Option 2: NDMP Direct Copy
I've been asking for this for a while, and I'm really excited it's out,
well, almost...
Symantec didn't/doesn't the current Integrated VTL model of copying
virtual to physical tape. (They like the idea of having the VTL do its
own copying, but not the execution.) It's a copy process that they can't
control and/or report on.
This option, that they've been working on for 1.5 years or so, is going
to give us our cake and let us eat it too. This will allow VTLs that
can talk to tape to do so and let NetBackup control and report on the
process. NetBackup will use NDMP as a control protocol (the original
coders of NDMP would be so proud to know of this use of their protocol
that was never envisioned) to tell the VTL to copy image A to another
tape. Via this protocol a tape will be loaded into a drive, NetBackup
will label it and get it ready to send the image, and then NetBackup
will tell the VTL to send the image, much in the way that it tells a
filer today to send an NDMP dump directly to tape. As far as NBU is
concerned, they're not involved once that's done. The VTL will tell it,
"done," and NBU will record which tape it got copied to. The VTL could
also, of course, say things like "failed," or "tape is full, I need
another tape," etc. (It supports spanning tapes.)
(The fact that this is using NDMP has nothing to do with the format of
the backup. It will be able to copy regular backups and NDMP backups.)
What I'm looking forward to is a VTL that uses this interface NOT to
copy to real tape, but to copy to another VTL, using de-dupe &
replication in the background to copy the image instantly and magicly,
while still allowing NetBackup to control the process. Just think. If
you were use de-dupe and replicating VTL a to VTL b, VTL a could "copy"
an image to VTL B without actually making the copy, just by moving bits
around. This would rock, but it's definitely just a dream at this
point.
AS OF TODAY, the API is in 6.5, but none of the partners have gone GA
with their product that supports this feature. They are in testing and
it should be out soon (my guess is sooner than the Open Storage API).
(Again, my guess here would be that the early adopters of this are
likely to be Integrated VTL vendors like Falconstor, Quantum/ADIC, &
NetApp. There's no reason that all VTL vendors shouldn't be able to do
this, though.)
You can read a reference to it in the release notes, but there's nothing
there you didn't read here:
http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/NetBackup_Enterprise
_Server/290196.pdf
---
W. Curtis Preston
Backup Blog @ www.backupcentral.com
VP Data Protection, GlassHouse Technologies
-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Tim Hoke
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:12 AM
To: VERITAS-BU AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NetBackup 6.5 VTL direct to tape
The reason this is a feature in 6.5 is the OpenStorage functionality.
With OpenStorage, the hardware vendor (EMC, FalconStor, etc) will
implement some way (OpenStorage API) of being a disk front end with
the tape offload on the back end. So, it's not really a VTL at that
point, but a disk-disk-tape solution where the tape portion is
automated by the hardware vendor. Once the data is on tape, the
OpenStorage functionality will allow NetBackup to know where the data
is. And NetBackup won't have had to even been involved in the
"duplication" to tape.
Wish I could point to more information, but I wasn't able to find
anything on OpenStorage on the Symantec website except for manual
references.
HTH
-Tim
On 8/30/07, drpaine10 <netbackup-forum AT backupcentral DOT com> wrote:
>
> My suspicion was that they would have me line up the virtual and
physical media id's. I'm not sure why this is listed as a feature in
netbackup 6.5 since we could do this in any previous version.
>
> any ideas?
>
>
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