Virtual TapeServer 6.03.41 Installation Guide

Enabling Enterprise Integration and Migration

Enterprise integration enables a backup management application (BMA) server to read and

write files to and from Virtual TapeServer (VTS). You can enable VTS to migrate virtual tapes

to physical tapes. To configure VTS to automatically migrate virtual tapes, you must install a

BMA client on the VTS server and configure the VTSPolicy command in conjunction with the

Event Management Service (EMS) on VTS. You can also manually initiate migration by

clicking the Migrate button on the Virtual Media - Operation page. If no BMA is installed in

your environment, you can license the Library Migration Facility (LMF) from your authorized

VTS service and support representative, which will enable you to perform manual migrations.

VTS supports the following BMAs for migration:

• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (version 5.3 and above)

• Symantec Veritas NetBackup (version 4.5 and above)

• Syncsort Backup Express (version 2.15D and above)

• EMC Legato Networker (version 6.2 or above)

Migration allows for better use of the disk space on the storage array. For instance, if a virtual

tape needs to be saved for seven years for legal purposes, it is not fiscally prudent to keep that

data on disk. You could automatically migrate the virtual tape to physical tape. In the

unlikely event that the virtual tape is needed, VTS can automatically request that the BMA

server restore it from physical tape.

When a virtual tape is migrated to physical tape, all data on the virtual tape is written to

physical tape, including the header information (metadata). The data is then removed from

VTS, though the virtual tape’s metadata is retained. To restore a physical tape that was

automatically migrated by a BMA, the BMA must restore the tape to VTS. Host servers

cannot read physical tapes that were created through migration because the tape is formatted

for use by VTS only. After the data is restored as a virtual tape in VTS, the host server can

then restore the data.

Note You can export a virtual tape to physical tape, which does not require BMA

integration. See the Virtual TapeServer Operations and Administration Guide for

more information about exporting virtual tapes.

The BMA client must be installed on the VTS server, which is based on the Linux operating

system. The BMA treats VTS as a UNIX host on the enterprise network. Virtual tapes are

then migrated to the tape library managed by the BMA server according to policies set by the

BMA administrator. The BMA server can migrate virtual tapes using the following methods:

• The BMA administrator creates a backup job on the BMA server and schedules it to run

on the BMA client. The BMA server manages the entire process and maintains a database

of the backup files including a list of physical tapes to which the data was written. The

BMA server also controls the tape library.