Will disk drives have to be initialized manually?

The technical support forum for Firestreamer (the virtual tape library).
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oliverhausler
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Oct 2011, 06:00

Post by oliverhausler »

I want to use SATA disks instead of tape (drive mode, single drive, no virtual tapes). Is it possible to assign a specific SATA interface to Filestreamer and then use SATA disks for backup as if they were tapes (DPM)? Will disks have to be initialized by an administrator or can I just plug in unformatted SATA disks, as I would do with tapes?

My question refers to the point that backups will be performed by users, not administrators, and I am looking for a solution (once up and running) where no admin is needed to perform the task, even though tapes (drives) are added.
jsf
Cristalink Support
Posts: 300
Joined: 29 Aug 2010, 09:03

Post by jsf »

As far as I understood, you plan to use Microsoft DPM with external HDDs in drive media mode (one tape per drive). How many drives (tapes) do you expect to be connected to your backup server simultaneously? Microsoft DPM does need tapes, so you will be busy swapping drives if you plan to have only a few of them connected at the same time.

Firestreamer loads particular tapes, not "SATA interfaces". In other words, you can load a specific drive (SATA or otherwise) as a tape. In theory, you can write a script that loads all drives connected to a specific SATA interface, but it's entirely up to you.

In drive media mode, the drives need to be prepared once by an administrator or whoever can format drives. This is only necessary to prevent accidental deletion of data. You can prepare a bunch of drives first and then use them as needed.
Best regards,
John Smith
Cristalink Support
oliverhausler
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Oct 2011, 06:00

Post by oliverhausler »

If I understand this correctly, then I can prepare the drives I want to use for Firestreamer once, connect them to any SATA interface when I want to perform a backup, and I can re-use drives without further preparation and DPM will delete them just as if these were tapes (because they have the "FirestreamerWriteAllowed" tag). Is this correct?

I want to use a single tape, which is exchanged daily. (We already use tapes for this purpose and with co-location enabled everything is stored onto a single tape.)
jsf
Cristalink Support
Posts: 300
Joined: 29 Aug 2010, 09:03

Post by jsf »

Correct.

>>DPM will delete them just as if these were tapes (because they have the "FirestreamerWriteAllowed" tag).

DPM is not aware of Firestreamer, let alone the tag, as well as Firestreamer is not aware of DPM. DPM just sees a tape library, and Firestreamer just responds to commands. The drive will appear to DPM as a physical tape, and DPM will use it as a such.
Best regards,
John Smith
Cristalink Support
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