Cristalink Support Forums

I am interested in Firestreamer and integration with DPM 2010. I have watched the demo online and have noticed that you have to close the library door before you can run the protection group, does this apply for scheduled backups or was this just because you ran the job manually ?

I would like to run scheduled synchronisation jobs every 15 minutes to an external USB drive, would this be possible using Firestreamer ?

Regards,

Unlike some physical tape libraries with a "door" which can be locked and unlocked by backup software, Firestreamer doesn't have one. Even if Firestreamer reports to Microsoft DPM that it has no door, DPM still uses the concept of locking and unlocking the door to track tape changes. Firestreamer doesn't care whether the non-existing door is locked or unlocked in DPM. However, if the door is unlocked in DPM, the latter won't schedule tape operations until the door is closed; once the door is closed, DPM will inventory the library.

You don't have to unlock then lock the door in DPM when you change tapes in Firestreamer. It makes no difference from Firestreamer's standpoint. But if you changed the tapes without unlocking the door, DPM will not update the library state, and the next backup is likely to fail. When the backup fails, DPM will re-inventory the library to update its state, so the subsequent backups after that are likely to succeed.

you have to close the library door before you can run the protection group, does this apply for scheduled backups or was this just because you ran the job manually

We recommend unlocking the library door before you change tapes in Firestreamer, and lock the door after that, as per Microsoft DPM's documentation. If you haven't locked the door, DPM will lock the door automatically.

I would like to run scheduled synchronisation jobs every 15 minutes to an external USB drive, would this be possible using Firestreamer?

If by synchronisation jobs you mean backups (recovery points), then yes. Why not?

Thank you for the reply, that has cleared that up.

One more question;
If we plan to backup to and rotate a weeks worth of external hard drives, each with one virtual tape on. Will this work with filestreamer ?

Yes, it will. See What is the best backup strategy for my environment?