We are running the 2010 R3 version of Backup Exec. Until now we have used 3 SDLT tape drives and SDLT tapes as our backup media. Jobs are setup on a schedule, tapes are in a tape set and each day tapes are changed and the jobs run without any problems. One or more jobs run to a specific tape drive and the first job is set to overwrite the tape and additional jobs are set to append. When the last job is run, the tape is ejected.
Our need for backup capacity has outgrown the capacity of the SDLT tapes. So what I wish to do is use is a couple of Startech.com esata/usb external dock (model SDOCK2U33EB) for SATA III hard drives. Each dock will be connected to the server via a separate esata port. Then instead of individual tapes, I would have individual 2TB SATA III hard drives. The pool of hard drives would have about 50 different drives that would be rotated, usually one per weekday. Since each Startech dock can handle two hard drives, there might be one or two drives in the dock, depending upon the specific backup job and capacity needed.
I need some guidance on how to setup the hardware and configure Backup Exec so that I can switch my backup jobs from the SDLT tape over to the removeable SATA hard drives. I want to configure the system where I can treat the hard drives the same way I treat the SDLT tape cartridges. I just take out the previous days tape and insert the tapes for that day. I don't do any sort of manual 'mounting' or 'unmounting', the system and configured backup jobs take care of all of that.
BTW, BE 2010 R3 is running on a standalone Windows 2008 64bit server attached to the network.
Is there a configuration white paper that someone can point me to? If not, can someone layout what needs to be done in a cookbook step by step approach?
Thanks.
