ESXi5.5, Veeam8, Tape Drive Passthrough to VM

[v33@m3r]

Hi There,

I was wondering if many people are Installing Veeam on a VM, and configuring tape drive pass-through?
Is this supported, and also, does it work well?
Is there any sort of compatibility list I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance!

[Dima P.]

Hello v33@m3r,
Tape device pass-through configuration is not recommended and not supported.

[veremin]

First and foremost this configuration is not supported by VMWare itself. Even if we turn a blind eye to it, we're likely to face number of other limitations. Thanks.

[v33@m3r]

Hi There,

Thanks for that. I had thought this was the case, but just wanted to get the latest on it.

[veremin]

The best approach would be to attach a device to any Windows-based physical or virtual machine (ISCSI), add that server as a tape server to a backup console, and use it afterwards. Thanks.

[v33@m3r]

Hi All,

Sorry for doing a Zombie thread on this, but is all of this the same now with ESXi6? (VMware & Veeam do not support tape drive passthrough with ESXi6 / Veeam9 ?)

Thanks

[veremin]

As far as I'm aware, VMware has not changed that policy. Thanks.

[v33@m3r]

ok thanks

[veremin]

If you happen to have any Windows-based physical machine then you can connect your tape device to it. If you want to make use of VM, then make sure that the device supports ISCSI connections. Thanks.