Virtual TapeServer 6.03.41 Installation Guide

1
Introduction
Tape remains the most practical solution for removable storage, and it is often required by
regulatory agencies to be archived and stored offsite. However, as the cost of commodity disk
storage has decreased, many enterprises view disk-based backup solutions as a feasible
alternative to tape-based backup. Disk-based backup can significantly improve performance,
contribute to improved operations, and enable an increasingly automated backup strategy.
Virtual TapeServer (VTS) is a fully integrated, virtual tape, hardware and software solution,
designed and fully qualified for HP NonStop customers. VTS allows host systems to read from
and write to an embedded or attached redundant array of independent disks (RAID). VTS also
allows host systems to write directly to an external tape or disk device, bypassing the virtual
process. Data is automatically migrated to a tape device based on policies or manually
migrated to physical tape as required.
For every host connection to VTS, the host system “sees” a tape drive; the virtual tape drive
emulates the type of tape drive specified during the initial installation and setup process.
Virtual tape drives behave just like real tape drives without the problems generally
associated with real tape drives.
VTS delivers reliable, scalable, and high performance virtual tape for backup and restore,
Transaction Management Facility (TMF), and archive and data recovery operations. You can
deploy VTS to simplify and streamline traditional tape operations, reduce costs for storage
hardware and tape media, automate backup and restore operations, and increase flexibility in
managing backed-up data.