Feature requests for TAPE

[vmtech123]

The ability to create a job, and point it to 2 libraries or media pools.
-I have 2 tape libraries and have to create twice the pools/jobs

Some type of way to have a mirrored pool on 2 libraries.
- If we archive something we may never need, but have to keep for historical reference, being able to back it up. and have it mirror to a second library would be a great time saver.
-If a tape was to get destroyed during a restore or for any reason, the media pool could do a tape copy and restore the data from the other LIB.

[HannesK]

Hello,
assuming the feature would be available... how should the software react if one of the libraries has an issue / is slower than the other library for whatever reason?

What's the issue having two independent jobs in your case?

Thanks,
Hannes

[vmtech123]

I suppose the issue with 2 jobs is possibility of forgetting to add something to a job at the second site. I do currently use 2 jobs.

We have 2 libraries that are identical so they have the same performance. I mean, if they were not the same, one side would just run longer. The job would have to complete after both sides were done or it would be incomplete. That seems correct to me anyways. I want 2 copies on tape.

Here is a good example of what I am trying to accomplish.

Something I do, is VeeamZip or export a job after I power down a VM, right before I delete it. It's nice when someone says, "Hey, Do you still have the config files on that VM I told you to delete"? to be able to help them out.

I create a file to tape job, point file FileToTape job to the VeeamZip on the proxy and write it to tape. I have to do this at the second site as 1 copy of data is a no no. (I am ok with 2 copies on Tape in this situation). The next time, I go into my file to tape job, remove the old VeeamZip pointer and add a new one. It's a hassle but works. I then have my media pools to expire after a specified amount of time.

Something like VEEAMZIP_TO_TAPE would be amazing and eliminate this whole process. A step up would be VeeamZipToTape, but able to select 1, or both libraries as a target.

My other idea was that the mirrored media pools would just be a way of restoring a single tape if you lost one in a set. It could grab it from the other library and rebuild it on a scratch tape. TSM used to do this which was nice.

[vmtech123]

In regards to a library being down, rather than just slow.

Veaam can see the status of a library correct? I'd say have it write to just one with a warning if the other is down. Veeam would know what has been written to both sides so it could have an "Out of sync" alert.

Once the down library comes up, either copy off tapes from the working library, or from disk to the 2nd library. Happy green lights and an "IN SYNC" message can be displayed.

The ability to manually put a library in maint mode and let the sync drift a bit could be valuable too. Once you take it out let those tapes get writing.

The automatic rebuild of a tape marked as destroyed would be a nice redundancy feature to the data set and is literally just a tape to tape copy.

VeeamZip to Tape is essentially what I am doing, without having the manual intervention. Adding a second library would be just running that twice.

These all seem possible.

[HannesK]

sure, it's all "resolvable" somehow. I just wanted to show that this "simple" feature request is bigger than it might sound for your "best case environment". We have tens of thousands of customers using tape.. so it need to be reliable and usable for many different types of customers (not only those ones who mastered TSM before )

Thanks for the request anyway. We keep it noted

[vmtech123]

Haha, I understand my environment although a decent size is not overly complex. Perhaps because I designed it that way

VeeamZip to tapeseems like something that would be easy to implement. Even if I had to do it twice every time. It could use SAN space as a staging area if it needs as well.
All I'd want the ability to do is select what media pool it hits for retention. In the background it would just call a veeam zip, then run a file to tape job, and remove the VeeamZip when its done.
Maybe under the Tape section there could be a "archived VM" heading or something to locate them, or users can just find them manually.


Pointing to 2 libraries would be amazing even if in this one feature, but I understand it has to appeal to the masses.

The mirrored pool would be more complex to implement but would be cool in a more distant feature.

Veeam is MUCH better than TSM and so much more user friendly. As much as I dislike TSM, there are a few features such as multiple libraries with replication for redundancy, that keep us paying for it.

VeeamZip to 2 libraries would be "good enough" to at least restore a ton of old TSM archive data to some VM's, and store it in 2 locations as per internal policy. (I follow 54321 at a minimum for everything else)