Tape Libraries
A tape library is a hardware unit comprised of multiple physical or virtual tape drives and tape slots with a media changer for automatically inserting and removing tapes. The device is sometimes referred to as an automated tape library or jukebox.
Catalogic DPX supports tape devices and media changers compliant with the SCSI-2 standard and above. Tape drives must support variable-length records and allow a minimum transfer size of 32 KB. Additionally, media changer support on Microsoft Windows requires Microsoft Windows SCSI Pass-Through support from the HBA driver or a vendor-supplied media changer driver supporting Microsoft Windows SCSI Pass-Through.
Unless otherwise advised by Catalogic Data Protection Technical Support, the operating system of the Device Server that connects the tape or tape library device should have properly installed drivers as recommended by the device manufacturer.
No troubleshooting or bug-fix support is offered for devices that are no longer supported by the hardware vendor. Minimal troubleshooting and no new development will be done for devices connected to operating systems that are no longer supported by the vendor.
Catalogic DPX provides native fully integrated support for tape libraries of various vendors.
Catalogic DPX supports tape drives of variety of vendors and supported tape types. As a most current and commonly used is Linear Tape-Open (LTO) generations 3 through 10, as well as IBM 3592 drives. It supports physical libraries, standalone tape drives, and Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL) connected via SAS, FC, or iSCSI
DPX integration covers the complete backup lifecycle:
- Backup, Migration and Archiving: Write full, differential and incremental backups directly to tape from existing disk-based backup jobs or copying data from one tape type (or generation) to another.
- Media Management: Automate drive cleaning, barcode scanning, loading and unloading tapes to the tape devices, export and import media to the tape library
- Encryption: Support for tape encryption - both HW and software-base whatever is applicable
Key Requirements & Limitations
- Connection Mode: Tape devices must be connected directly to the backup server via SAS, FC, or iSCSI. Pass-through connections to virtual machines hosted on VMware ESXi or other hypervisors are not supported.
- Compatibility List: Catalogic DPX does not enforce a specified Hardware Compatibility List, relying instead on standard SCSI commands for tape drives and media changers. In addition, tape drives must support variable length records.
- No Third-Party Sharing: Catalogic DPX must have exclusive access to the tape drives it manages; sharing a library with third-party software or another Catalogic DPX installations may cause data corruption or failure to complete backups or migration
The LTO Generation 9 (LTO-9) mandates the “initial calibration” for every LTO-9 media cartridge when used for the first time. The media initialization process may take up to 2 hours. New LTO-9 media cartridges must be initialized before using them with Catalogic DPX write operations (labeling and backup).