Exchange 2010 - LANfree dedicated/exclusive use of a tape drive

[LarryB]

Hi There,

I am using TSM 6.1 with 6 X LTO4 tape drives. I have an Exchange 2010 configured to use LANFree (Storage Agent). I would like to use one TSM library (created in TSM)

Is it possible to take one of the 6 tape drives and make this exclusively available for the Exchange 2010 environment to backup LANFree? So it is also available to be used on call.


I would prefer not to create another library in TSM solely for this purpose
thanks

 

[GregE]

On TSM server, delete the paths from the other sources (servers and storage agents) to that particular drive. This way nothing else can use it. Have the path defined only from the one source storage agent to that drive.

If you want that drive to be available when not in use by that Exchange backup, you could setup a script which deletes all of those paths before that backup starts, then defines those paths again once that backup is complete.

 

[LarryB]

Thanks for this solution. I had thought of deleting paths etc. I was wondering have you tried this method at TSM 6.1 or TSM 5.5?
Thanks

 

[rore]

On TSM server, delete the paths from the other sources (servers and storage agents) to that particular drive. This way nothing else can use it. Have the path defined only from the one source storage agent to that drive.

If you want that drive to be available when not in use by that Exchange backup, you could setup a script which deletes all of those paths before that backup starts, then defines those paths again once that backup is complete.

If you delete all paths except for the path for the storage agent, the TSM server itself will be unable to communicate with the drive and unable to share it to the storage agent. It will not work.

Allow me to ask why you want to assign one of of the six drives (all the same type as per your post)? Maybe you can achieve what you are looking for using keepmount (KEEPMP) and/or mount point preemption.

Rudy

 

[LarryB]

Essentially, we want one tape drive not used by any thing else. So when the Exchange 2010 starts to backup it can grab a drive straight away without competition and can keep it. Normally, the tape drives reside as a pool "First in, First Serve"

 

[GregE]

If you delete all paths except for the path for the storage agent, the TSM server itself will be unable to communicate with the drive and unable to share it to the storage agent. It will not work.

Thanks. I wasn't aware of that.

 

[rore]

Essentially, we want one tape drive not used by any thing else. So when the Exchange 2010 starts to backup it can grab a drive straight away without competition and can keep it. Normally, the tape drives reside as a pool "First in, First Serve"

Well, that means that you don't have enough drives at that time. If you dedicate one drive for Exchange, others backup will have to wait for a mount point then. It will be idle (means wasted) when Exchange doesn’t need it. You are essentially downsizing your resources.

Why not review the schedule and move some backups some hours before or after?

Other than that you can maybe play with the mountlimit parameter of your tape deviceclass. So, you can use a script that update it to 5, let’s say an hour before the backup starts; and then update back to ‘DRIVES’ just few minutes before the backup. However that doesn’t guarantee that Exchange will grab a mountpoint right away.