Virtual TapeServer 6.02.00 Installation Guide

HP Virtual TapeServer Installation Guide 38 HP Part Number 528654-006 Sept 2006
Configuring Instant/DR & AutoCopy
Two different implementations for backup synchronization can be used with Virtual
TapeServer - Instant/DR and VTS AutoCopy.
Instant/DR is a Disaster Recovery (DR) Site implementation that synchronizes
the backup location with any changes made to the specified cartridges.
Instant/DR only transfers changes made to the virtual cartridges, which greatly
speeds up the process.
VTS AutoCopy is used to automatically copy a virtual cartridge from one VTS
system to another VTS system when a virtual cartridge has been mounted,
modified, and then dismounted by the NonStop host.
While both products result in a copy of data resident on one or more remote VTS
servers, the mechanisms they use are different. However, the setup for both AutoCopy
and Instant/DR are very similar. Each job is defined by a jobset. Each jobset can back
up one or more cartridges. Within each jobset, the synchronization tasks are serialized.
Two jobsets cannot be run at the same time. However, you can dispatch two separate
jobsets, one right after another, in order to run multiple synchronization tasks
simultaneously depending on the performance capabilities of your physical resources.
Instant/DR
Each jobset contains entries that identify virtual cartridges to process. A cartridge is
identified by vault, pool and cartridge name. The destination name of the cartridge on the
remote side can either be the same as the source or different, and it is referred to as a
group or target. This concept of a group or target name is explained later. In a simple
scenario you can synchronize virtual cartridges to the same target names on the remote
system. You can specify "==" for the target names. The double-equal sign means "same
as" and can be used in one other place.
A single "=" can be used in any column (vault, pool, cartridge or target) to specify the
same value as the one directly above that value (previous line, same column). Do not
confuse the single equal sign with the double equal sign usage as they mean very
different things. The single equal sign is an entry short-hand and is replaced with the
above value when the job is saved.
Now a more thorough explanation of the target or group name: If a new generation of a
backup is done on consecutive days, you might rotate through a group of cartridges for
each backup on each day and retain previous versions online for several days. The
cartridge you want to synchronize would be the one most recently created, not any of the
prior versions. Each of these cartridges has been generated from the same backup task
such that some of the data remains the same from day to day, and some have changed.
If the cartridges involved are named ABC001, ABC002, ABC003, you can use an
arbitrary group name such as ABCABC to give to the cartridge on the DR side.
You do this by creating three lines in the jobset. If these cartridges are in the same pool,
you only need to specify vault and pool once and use "=" signs for these items on the