Amazon AWS VTL Gateway

[Meyercord]

I'm not sure what I'm doing differently, but barcodes seem to work for me.

https://www.anony.ws/i/2015/04/16/Untitled.png

[Dima P.]

AJ,
Same Sony changer driver with VBR v8 patch1?

[veremin]

Can you go to Device Manager, select corresponding changer and post a screenshot of its driver information? Thanks.

[Meyercord]

Its the Sun/StorageTek STK-L700. This is the changer recommended by Amazon for use with Veeam V7 and V8. Im running Veeam V8 with SP1 (8.0.0.917).

Edit: Oh, but its not the Sony - TSL-A500C driver they recommended at the bottom of the page. hmm.

https://www.anony.ws/i/2015/04/17/Untitled27365.png

[Dima P.]

AJ,
Thanks. Any chance you received some private fix from QA thru support team?

[Meyercord]

No, I haven't applied any fixes other than the public SP1. Could it be that the default driver works better than the Sony one?

[tsightler]

I've often wondered why Amazon recommends using the Sony driver vs the StorageTek driver since the AWS VTL specifically emulates the StorageTek L700, while the TSL-A500C is not even an LTO changer but rather an old AIT-2 desktop sized autoloader that I don't even think supports barcodes (the Tivoli Storage Manager docs on the device specifically note no barcode support), and that would certainly explain why barcodes don't work with this driver. I thought perhaps the decision to recommend it had something to do with driver availability in specific Windows versions or that maybe some specific function doesn't work (vaulting?) but I never had the opportunity to test it. No matter what I just found it very strange to recommend a driver that is really nothing at all close to the device you are emulating.

[Dima P.]

Tom,
As far as I know, the WinApi driver (if you are lucky enough to find it) for StorageTek L700 changer was not compatible with Amazon VTL and the default one worked thru SCSI which is not supported by our tape server. Regarding the Sony driver you are correct – no barcode reader for this device and that’s why no barcode support in the emulation.

AJ,
Interesting. Could you share the driver package with me, or it was automatically updated by OS?

[Meyercord]

Now that you mention it, I remember that when I first tested Amazon VTL before it was supported with Veeam, I think that I tried to obtain vendor drivers for the media changer. I can't remember where I found the drivers I currently have installed, but I possibly used the instructions from here. I'll send you my extracted drivers in a PM

[Dima P.]

Thanks AJ! We'll get these drivers tested and if find any issues post the results to this very thread.

[Tom - CommArc]

I have just been implementing AWS for our company, got tired of manually renaming tapes so thought i would look at trying the Storagetek driver instead of using the Sony driver which AWS recommend. Worked perfectly first time with no issues that I can see thus far.

Thanks to Meyercord and Geofftx for the information provided in the current post and below from another post: http://forums.veeam.com/tape-f29/amazon ... 19737.html

"by geofftx » Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:02 pm

Easiest way I found to get the driver is to go to http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx and then search for "storagetek". In the search results you'll see "StorageTek - Storage - Sun/StorageTek Library". The 19K one is the 64-bit version. That was the closest thing I could find, and Device Manager reports the changer as a Sun device "working properly" once the driver is installed. "

I followed the instructions to find and download the drivers, installed them on to our server 2012 R2 Veeam server, updated the drivers and then ran an inventory on the tape library. It redetected the tapes with all the correct barcodes. I then added 10 tapes from the AWS storage gateway and ran 'Import Tapes' on the medium changer which picked up the 10 new tapes, all with the right barcodes.

Renaming the tapes manually was starting to drive us a bit crazy. This is an easy workaround until there is an official Veeam / AWS fix.

[Dima P.]

Hello Tom,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Renaming the tapes manually was starting to drive us a bit crazy. This is an easy workaround until there is an official Veeam / AWS fix.

The fix is on its way and will be available as a part of the next major release.

[Dima P.]

Folks,
Want to follow up and say that we bringing the Unknown Medium Changer support in the upcoming v9 which is going to eliminate all the existing issues related to Amazon VTL. Check the blogpost for more details Enterprise Enhancements in v9: ROBO and Tape

P.S. Just realized it’s not in the blog but you can find it in the video

[Bobin_NZ]

Hi Dima,

I just installed Veeam 9, went straight to the Tape Library and add a new tape. Still not reading the Barcodes! Can you tell me what I'm missing? Is there something else I have to do to get this to work?

[veremin]

I believe the said issue can be resolved by opening a ticket and requesting the hot fix that has been already created. Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Hi,

It still uses the Sony emulation without the barcode reader after the upgrade. In order to use the Oracle STK emulation with barcode reader you need to delete the driver of the Sony changer in the Device Manager and leave the Unknown Medium Changer to let the VBR switch to SCSI commands. Prior doing that, I’d move all the tapes to the virtual shelf just in case and leave a couple of free tapes inside the VTL. If you see any IE slot errors mentioned above contact the support team to get a hot fix.

[Bobin_NZ]

Thanks Dima

Once I uninstalled the driver and ticked the "Native SCSI commands" box under the libray it started reading the labels. One probelm I have noticed so far, is the drive seems to go offline when I run a "Import Tapes". I will run some more tests and see if it keeps doing it.

Thanks for the info.

[veremin]

Kindly, keep us updated on the results of your findings and reach support team, if necessary. Thanks.

[gparker]

Hi,

I'm planning to deploy Veeam v9 soon and am wondering if it's compatible with AWS Storage Gateway–VTL? According to this link http://docs.aws.amazon.com/storagegatew ... e-software, it works with Veeam v7 and v8, but there's no mention of v9.

Please help, much appreciated.

George.

[veremin]

It's compatible, indeed. Though, as mentioned above, the might be certain issues with such combination.

So, it's recommended to follow Dmitry's suggestions and see whether the usage of hot fix is required.

Thanks.

[gparker]

Ok thanks. Has the hotfix been incorporated into the latest v9 build? If not and I find that I do it it, where can grab the hotfix from?

Regards, George.

[veremin]

Nope, as some issues have been discovered after v9 release. As to hot fix, you can request it within a support ticket. Thanks.

[gparker]

Hi, when you say "some issues have been discovered after v9 release", are these issues related to the AWS VTL Gateway, or are they general v9 issues?

Regards, George.

[veremin]

Issues related to Unknown Media Changer support that directly affects Amazon AWS VTL. Thanks.

[raulpc]

Hi
i have a problem, when I integrate a VTL amazon, i can see the drives, but cannot see the tapes in the media node.

I read the previous post , where they say they do, such as changing the medium changer Sony TSL- A500C autoloader, but still the same.

[Dima P.]

Raul,

Please open a support case - hot fix should be available for your issue.

[gparker]

Hi,
I've recently installed VBR v9 and updated it with patch1, so I'm running v9.0.0.1491. The Veeam server is also the tape server. I have been trying to implement the AWS Storage Gateway-VTL and I can see the Medium Changer and the 10 tape-drives in Windows Device manager and in the Veeam Console under Tape Infrastructure. When I tried right-clicking the library and selected Import tapes it failed. I logged case # 01736959 and the support I've been receiving is unacceptable. I'm hoping someone on this forum can help me please!

Regards, George.

[Dima P.]

Hello George,

What drivers are you using for Amazon VTL’s medium changer (you can check it in the Device Manager > Medium Changers) ?

[gparker]

Hi Dima P,
The Medium Changer driver is "Sun/Storage Tek Library", Driver Provider "Storage Tek", Driver date "22/06/2009", Driver Version "2.3.0.0".

I received 2 files from the person working on my case:- "VeeamTapeSvc.exe" and "Veeam.Backup.Core.dll". The case owner asked me to try these 2 files as a temporary workaround by making sure I have copies of the original versions of these files->replacing the originals with these 2->restarting the Veeam services->open a command prompt and run the workaround VeeamTapeSvc.exe to import a tape-> replace the 2 workaround files with the originals->restart the Veeam services. This seems to have worked. It imported one of the thirty VTL tapes I had configured in my AWS Console and when I then right-clicked the tape library and ran an import tape operation, it added the remaining 29 tapes into "Online" Media. I was then able to right-click the library and perform an "Inventory Library" and all 30 tapes were marked as "Free". I've just created a GFS Media Pool and a test Tape Backup job linking it to one of my main backup-to-disk-repository jobs and kicked off a backup and it appears to be processing ok. The job started around 25 minutes ago and it loaded a tape into a drive and added it to the GFS pool and the job is showing data processed/Read/Transferred at a rate of 25 MB/s and showing 1% completed.

The case owner told me not to continue using the 2 workaround files, they were provided to me just to get the import to work via command line. Hopefully this will become a permanent fix and incorporated into the product....

[gparker]

Hi, i received the permanent fix a few days ago and the import tape operation no longer fails. I am running another test tape backup job to the AWS VTL and it seems to be progressing well. I will try an archive operation to see if the virtual tape ejects and exports to my AWS VTS and that i can recall the virtual tape. Thanks very much.
George.