Setting up LTO Tape Drives for Hardware Encryption

General Overview

This topic describes the procedures required to set up an LTO4, 5, or 6 tape device for hardware encryption. The procedures that apply depend on the tape device manufacturer and operating system, as indicated in the following table:

Note. The three procedures are described in .

See also. For the latest system compatibility details regarding supported hardware, file systems, applications, operating systems, and service packs, see the .

Note the following:

For HP and Quantum tape devices on Windows device servers, the Bexsptape device driver is required for hardware encryption. Implementing Bexsptape is done in .
For IBM tape devices, Bexsptape is not needed. An IBM device driver supporting hardware encryption is required. Only applies to IBM drives.
For Linux and UNIX operating systems, Bexsptape is not required.

Procedures for Setting up LTO Tape Drives for Hardware Encryption

Follow the procedures that apply to your tape device and operating system; thus, for IBM devices, skip to ; for Linux and UNIX device servers, omit .

Procedure 1. Enable Hardware Encryption

To enable hardware encryption using the Device Configuration Wizard:

Launch the Device Configuration Wizard.
In the Select Nodes to Scan dialog, select the node where the drive is installed, and then click Options. The Node Options dialog displays.
Select the check box Check here to enable DPX LTO Encryption options.
From the Please select drop-down menu, select Enable/Update.
Click OK.
If the drives are already added to the Enterprise, click Exit. If the drives are not added to the Enterprise, continue to use the Device Configuration Wizard to add them.

See also.

Procedure 2. Configure the Windows Device Sever to Use the Bextape Device Driver

To configure the device server for Bexsptape:

In the Windows Device Manager, locate the tape device to associate with the Bexsptape driver. Note the following:
- If the tape device already has a driver associated with it, uninstall the driver. If a selection displays to permanently delete the driver, it is recommended to select it. This ensures that the driver is not available for the device in the future, eliminating possible conflict with Bexsptape.
- Tape devices that do not have a driver associated with it are in the Other Devices container of the display.
Right-click the appropriate tape device, and then select Update Driver Software from the pop-up menu. The first page of a wizard appears.
You are asked how you want to search for driver software. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
On the next wizard page, select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer. Click Next.
From the display list, select your device type, Tape drives. Click Next.
On the next page, enter the location of the Bexsptape device driver. Select Have Disk.
Browse to <product-directory>/bin/drivers/<Osver>, where <Osver> is specific to the version of Windows the device is installed on.
From the display list, select bexsptape. Click Open.
Select the tape drive manufacturer and model in the Model list. Click Next.
A success window appears, confirming that the driver software is updated. Click Close.
Confirm that the tape drive appears in the Tape drives container in the Windows Device Manager display.

Procedure 3. Run Detect

Run the Detect utility to record the device id and update your data protection Enterprise to use the Bexsptape driver.

The Bexsptape type of device file is formulated as: bexsptape_vp<0123456789>_cn or bexsptape_vp<0123456789>_n, where

v and p are the first character of the vendor ID and product ID reported by the SCSI Inquiry command.
<0123456789> is the ten-digit unit serial number reported from the tape device.
n denotes no rewind.
c denotes compression enabled.

Either device id format, ending in _cn or _n, may be used when configuring the tape device in your Enterprise.

Once the Detect utility completes, the tape device is available for hardware-encrypted tape backups.

Last updated 4 months ago