Backup Exec 2010 R3 -> USB Tape Drive -> ESXi

[LaSh_]

Hi All,

I've got an HP Server running ESXi 4.1 onto which one of my VMs is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

I also have one USB Dat 72 Tape Drive connected to the server which I have made available for the above VM.

Tape Drive is detected properly in Device Manager.

When loading BE2010 R3, I get a msg telling me that BE does not have drivers to support a USB Tape Drive, however in the Devices window, I find my USB Tape Drive, when I insert a tape, it is however not detected in the Media window.

I've tried to start a test backup, which hangs at being Queued, and Device shows the Tape Drive as being In Use.

Should I use a specific driver to load it properly in BE2010? And what about the Media not being detected when inserted?

Thanks for any help.

AJ

[ZeRoC00L]

Backup Exec running in a VM only supports SCSI tape devices, with Adaptec SCSI adapters.
See this technote:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH130609

[teiva-boy]

Supportability, and actually working, are two very different things.  Symantec may not support it, but that doesnt mean you can't get it working on your own.  That also means you're on your own for support too.

That said, typically if Windows can see the drive, in the Device Manager BE should be able to use it.  I would try again on a physical host, just to rule out any hardware issues with the drive, and also to validate the drivers you are using.  Then work through troubleshooting this further.

[pkh]

typically if Windows can see the drive, in the Device Manager BE should be able to use it. 

Yes, but that does not mean that it would work properly.  Although the VM vendors would like to to believe that a VM is 100% the same as a physical machine, this is not true, especially with the use of physical devices.  The host would have to translate the VM I/O commands from the VM to the physical device.  Often than not, there are always gaps and the device would not work properly with a VM.

@LaSh_ - See this document on the requirements for virtualising your media server

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH130609

Note the part about this being an alternative configuration.

If you can use a physical media server.

[LaSh_]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the answers provided.

I've been digging around a bit and managed to get the following done:

1 > Device detected properly by Backup Exec ( USB Dat72 Tape Drive)

2 > Inventory of tapes ; during my initial troubleshooting, BE wasn't inventoring the tapes inserted, however the inventory time is between 30 seconds and 16-17 Minutes! 

I thought that perhaps because the Tape Drive wasn't finding any tapes that it was causing the Backup Job to hang at being Queued.

But even now; when the Media Label for the tape is clearly shown as Green and Online, a backup job starts as Pre-Processing, and then once again goes to Job Status: Queued 

:(

[Colin_Weaver]

This sort of description is unfortunately typical of feedback we have received from other customers trying to get this to work and has added to the reasons why we can't currently support passthrough for backup target devices (we also see odd results with B2D on USB disks passed through into VMs)

Note if you can prove the same device has issues with a physical server then we will look into an issue in a formal support case