Virtual TapeServer 6.04.02 for NonStop Servers Release Notes

Introduction | 1
Introduction
Virtual TapeServer (VTS) is a fully integrated virtual tape, hardware and software solution.
VTS allows host systems to read from and write to a local or SAN-attached file system. Data
is automatically migrated to a tape device based on policies or manually migrated to physical
tape for archival storage or disaster recovery, if long-term backup copies are required. The
integrated support for backup management application software provides a mechanism for
writing to physical tape drives and libraries. (If GFS is enabled in your environment, multiple
VTS servers can access a shared set of pools and virtual tapes stored on the same storage
array.)
These release notes apply to the 6.04.02 release of the Virtual TapeServer (VTS).
Overview of features
Release 6.04.02 introduces the following new features and support to VTS:
• New server model (VT5900-K) is available, which is built on the DL185 G5 server
• New Manage Connections page is available for creating and managing virtual tape drives
(VTDs), and online help is provided for this page
• New EMS Configuration page is available for setting EMS configuration parameters, and
online help is provided for this page
• VTS can now be upgraded and downgraded using the web interface
• Logging improvements:
• System log files in /var/log are now compressed on rotation
• Logwatch can now generate and store reports, and the web interface can list them
• Remote logging of audit log records is now supported
• CommVault Galaxy is now supported as a backup management application
• New Virtual TapeServer Quick Setup Guide is printed and shipped with VTS, which
provides all hardware setup and initial configuration
The heart of VTS is a middleware tape emulation engine that enables VTS to emulate tape
storage to host servers and provides backup storage for the data on industry standard, low-
cost disk arrays. Data stored in VTS can later be copied to real tape media for archival storage
or disaster recovery if long-term backup copies are required. The advantages of this approach
include the following:
• Access to data in VTS is almost immediate, and there is no tape to mount or rewind and
no searching through tape volumes for data files.
• If additional tape storage is needed, you can create virtual tapes using the VTS web
interface without involving the host server. A tape that is individually exported by VTS is
identical to one made by the application directly and can be read on any host server,
including sites without VTS.
• VTS allows multiple hosts to perform up to 16 simultaneous backups per VTS server. Up
to one virtual tape drive (VTD) is supported per SCSI bus, up to four VTDs are supported
per Fibre Channel port, and up to 16 VTDs are supported per VTS server.