Recommended Best Practices for Tape Libraries

• The media changer is attached to a SAN and zoned to the master server. Therefore the master server acts as the tape library’s controller node.

• The tape drives are attached to the SAN and zoned to the NetApp storage system. Therefore the NetApp storage system acts as the device server.

• The tape library is a modern, vendor-supported library with tape drives capable of writing in variable block size mode. The media changer is SMC-2 compliant and supports the DVCID option of the Read Element Status command. The tape drives are SCSI-2 compliant and support variable length records and extended file marks. The tape library and tapes support bar coding. Most modern tape libraries fit these requirements. Libraries and tape drives that are currently unsupported by the device vendor are not supported by DPX.

• For DPX purposes, the media changer device and associated tape drives must belong to only one Enterprise controlled by a single master server. Tape library media changer control cannot be shared with other backup products and cannot be accessed by more than one master server.

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