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VTL INTEGRATION

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
hi all,

i run NBU 6.5.1 on windows 2003 server zoned through SAN to two TS3500 tape library. i just acquired a netapp VTL which i want to integrate, by placing it in between the master server and the 2 tape library. i need to know if any license is needed for this and if not what are the procedures for integration.

thanks.
18 REPLIES 18

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
very urgent

Darren_Dunham
Level 6
I think Enterprise Disk Licenses are required for all VTLs these days.  You should talk with your VAR or whoever you purchase licenses through for more information.

--
Darren

hammers09
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified
Darren is correct Enterprise disk licenses are required

Abesama
Level 6
Partner

VTL is just a tape library, from NetBackup's point of view, you do not need another type of license to use it.

You only need Enterprise Disk License when you want to buy the capacity based license - which you don't really have to.

Abe

hammers09
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

It is going to depend on how many virtual tape drives you want to create. Each virtual tape drive
requires a tape drive license. It therefore can work out cheaper to buy the enterprise disk license
as opposed to multiple tape drive licenses. It also will depend on what process you are using
to duplicate the backups onto real tape (assuming from your post that you are). Some devices
support path to tape (i.e the real tape library hangs off the back of the vtl and netbackup uses an api
to get the library to write to tape using ndmp) which definately does require the enterprise disk licence.
 

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
do i need enterprise disk license to migrate data from virtual tape to the physical tape library?

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
do i need enterprise disk license to migrate data from virtual tape to the physical tape library?

Darren_Dunham
Level 6
You need to confirm that with your VAR.  We are not using capacity based licensing nor are we planning to (it's way too much in my current configuration).  But we have been told that *any* VTL requires the EDL if purchased now.   Other options were available for licensing in the past.

--
Darren

hammers09
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified
It depends on how you wat to duplicate the date

you can use netbackup vault which will require a netbackup vault license

you can use storage lifecycle policies which requires no addtional license

you can run scripts and us ethe bpduplicate command which requires no licenses

you can use the path to tape feature if the VTL supports it which does require enterprise disk license

read this document

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-whitepaper_using_virtual_tape_libraries_...

Abesama
Level 6
Partner

You want to do something like, NetBackup backs up to VTL, then again it gets duplicated (migrated) off to the physical tape libraries.

For that to happen, the "path to tape feature" is not a must thing to have.

You can simply use the VTL's own feature (be it EMC or NetApp) to duplicate/mirror/migrate the backup images on the tape to the attached physical tape libraries/drives.

Good side of this is that you do not need to purchase the "path to tape feature" license, and you can decide either to duplicate as soon as the VTL backup is done, or specify duplicate window, or migrate only when more space is required.

With this, you can also utilize the "ghost tape" feature provided by VTL vendors, which is - even after you migrate/duplicate the image to physical tape, the image on  the disk will be still retained as much as possible, so that restores can run faster.

Bad side of this is that your NetBackup catalog will not know where the backup images are located - NetBackup simply thinks there's only one tape library (the VTL) and the images are in the VTL, full stop.

If you are more concerned about cost/money, then yes you can calculate which option will cost more and purchase license.

If you are more concerned about performance and flexibility and NetBackup's catalog management capacity, then the path to tape feature will be your choice.

Abe

Deepak_W
Level 6
Partner Accredited
@ayodeji
Few basic things -

1. VTL - even though they are storage systems it emulates itself as tape library
2. NetBackup - it is unaware about the internal structure of the VTLs and can only see the tape libraries (not a disk)

So it means there is not any disk into picture for VTLs. and licensing will depend on below mentioned points

How much TL you want to emulate through your VTL??

So I suggest you forst decide on the above questioned number and contact your sales rep. with this information.

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified

i appreciate abesama's comments but,

hi hammers09,

how can i use this two options you gave me,


you can use storage lifecycle policies which requires no addtional license

you can run scripts and us ethe bpduplicate command which requires no licenses

tx.

T_N
Level 6
No you need to verify on license, I think it should require license key for VTL

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
hi hammers09,

can u please answer d questions?

Marshal_D__Teac
Not applicable
hi Ayodeji

You can use your VTL without license but it's not legal, the license for VTL is :  " Virtual Tape Option"   and you must contact your VAR.  as I know the license is linked to the size of your VTL,  so the more TBytes you have the more is expensive this license.

I have already this license for my 70 TBytes Sun VTL;

for migrate the data from VTL to Tapes, Abesama has explain this, there many many method to do this , you can use duplication or some option integerated in the VTL such as "Automated Tape Caching"

PS: sorry for my english writing

hammers09
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified
storage lifecycle policies can be set up to duplicate images from vtl tape to real tape without additional licenses. These are configured
in the same place as storage units.

scripts could be written to use the bpduplicate command (see commands reference guide) to duplicate images from vtl tape to real tape.

(In both cases as previously discussed you would still need lcenses for either enterprise disk or tape drive licenses to actually use the vtl but you would not need a netbackup vault license to get your second copy)

ayodeji
Level 6
Certified
thanks hammers09, i  appreciate .

John_Stockard
Level 5
Partner Certified
Symantec changed their licensing scheme about a year ago.  The former "VTL Option" license has been retired.

In order to legally use a VTL with NetBackup, you need either the "Enterprise Disk Option" license or the "Standard Disk Option" license, depending on a few factors:
  • If your VTL replicates data to another VTL (either over the LAN or over the SAN), you need the "Enterprise Disk Option" license.
  • If your VTL does any form of data de-duplication, you need the "Enterprise Disk Option" license.  (This is the category where all Data Domain, Quantum DXi, and EMC DL3D 1500/3000 VTLs end up.)
  • If your VTL doesn't fall into either one of those categories, you only need the lower-cost "Standard Disk Option" license.
NetApp VTLs don't do data de-duplicaiton unless you're running the newer VTLOS 6.x firmware.  As far as I know, NetApp has not approved VTLOS 6.x for General Distribution (GD) yet, so unless you received a special variance from NetApp you're most likely running the VTLOS 5.x firmware which does not do data de-duplication.  In this case, you would need only the "Standard Disk Option" licenses unless your NetApp VTL is configured to replicate over the SAN to another NetApp VTL.  (NetApp VTLs cannot replicate over TCP/IP, only over FC.)

Keep in mind that the "Standard Disk Option" license and the "Enterprise Disk Option" license are not sized based on the usable capacity of your VTL.  They are sized based on the number of "front-end terabytes" that you are going to protect with the VTL.  A front-end terabyte is defined as one terabyte of data sitting on your clients.  An easy way to imagine this is to mentally do one full backup of each client (or data set on the clients) that you plan on backing up to the VTL and add these numbers up.  One advantage of this licensing method is that you can expand the usable capacity of your VTL at any point in the future without needing to purchase additional NetBackup licenses.  On the other hand, you need to keep track of how much data is being protected on your clients in order to remain in compliance with your licensing agreement.

The "Standard Disk Option" and "Enterprise Disk Option" licenses are not hard-enforced licenses in NetBackup, unlike the Library-Based Tape Drive licenses.  NetBackup will not stop working (or even give you a warning) if you exceed the number of front-end terabytes that you're licensed for.

Both the "Standard Disk Option" and "Enterprise Disk Option" licenses enable the Storage Lifecycle Policy and OST features in NetBackup.  They also enable the NDMP protocol, but only for the purposes of issuing NDMP commands to your VTL (for enabling direct tape creation, where your physical tape library is directly connected to your VTL; some VTL vendors refer to this as "Path-to-tape" instead of "direct tape creation").