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matt077's avatar
matt077
Level 5
15 years ago

Tape library with FC and SAS drives being shared by two systems


Can any one help me

I have a tape library with 2 SAS and 2 FC drives which will be used by two systems, one system using the SAS drives and the other system using the FC drives

What i'm trying to work out is how the system using the FC drives will tell the robotic library arm where to place tapes? (can see the drive fine but no arm), the system using the SAS drives is the main backup exec system and will work the robotic library arm

Many thanks

12.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Backup Exec (media server only)
SAN Shared Storage Option
  • matt077's avatar
    matt077
    15 years ago

    after logging a call with the support team, they have told me that the arm needs to be seen in windows from both systems and that i need SAN Shared storage option installed

    the system using the FC drives cant see the arm but can see the drives in device manager

19 Replies

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  • sksujeet's avatar
    sksujeet
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    you can not use 1 library to be shared between 2 servers unless and until you use some kind of san switch or SAN SSO option where you can plug the library to a san switch and multiple media servers to the same san switch.
  • matt077's avatar
    matt077
    Level 5
    15 years ago
    sorry, forgot to add that the FC is going over a SAN

    the SAS drives are via a sas cable and card
  • sksujeet's avatar
    sksujeet
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    so if i understood correctly you have 2 library connected to 2 servers. You have media server installed on each of them and the one has the Fiber through san not showing the arm in the BE.
    If that is the case check in device manager if you see the unknown medium changer.
  • matt077's avatar
    matt077
    Level 5
    15 years ago
    the set up i have is -

    One Tape library with 2 SAS drives and 2 FC drives plus not for getting the robotic arm

    1st system - system using the two SAS Drives plus robotic arm, connect via a SAS card and cable, everything working on that fine
    2nd system -  system using the two FC drives, cant see no robotic arm but can see both drives as stand alone drives, connect via SAN and fc cards.

    what i'm trying to work out is how can the 2nd system use the robotic arm to place tapes in the FC drives?
  • sksujeet's avatar
    sksujeet
    Level 6
    15 years ago

    In that case you have to connect all the 4 drives to one library or you should have 2 library. Otherwise the robotic arm will only work for the system where it is connected and will not be detected by other system

  • matt077's avatar
    matt077
    Level 5
    15 years ago

    is there a way that the 2nd system to talk to the 1st system? kinda be share the arm from system 1 to system 2?
  • sksujeet's avatar
    sksujeet
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Not possible at all as it is attached to one server and can't take control of other server at all
  • matt077's avatar
    matt077
    Level 5
    15 years ago

    just been talking to a support engineer which he told me that i need the SAN Storage opt licence, any one done this before?
  • sksujeet's avatar
    sksujeet
    Level 6
    15 years ago
    Yep in that case you have to connect your library to SAN switch and both the server should be connected to same San switch. Install BE on both the servers and both can access the library, you have to purchase the san - sso option for it.

    SAN SSO lets multiple distributed media servers share common, centralized storage devices connected over a SAN. This configuration provides greater efficiency and fault tolerance. In addition to increasing performance and backup speeds in the SAN environment, the Shared Storage Option load balances backup activity across multiple Backup Exec media servers and centralizes management tasks while lowering the total cost of hardware ownership.
  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    15 years ago
    Hi Matt,

    What sazz neglected to tell you is that to use SAN SSO on another SAN-attached server, you need a full version of Backup Exec on it, with all the agents and the SAN SSO agent. I don't see how this will address the issue where 2 drives are SAS-attached. That other server will need to be SAN-connected to utilise it.
    Why not consider loading up BE on the server that has SAn connectivity to the library, and then a RAWS agent on the other server? The thing here is that you can look at assigning the drives, or better yet, partitioning the library's slots and pointing the jobs to these partitions?
    This would save the cash of buying the SAN SSO license, as well as having to swop out your SAS drives for FC drives.

    Laters!