Virtual TapeServer 6.04.03 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 6.04.03 release of the VTS.
Overview of features
Release 6.04.03 introduces the following new features and support to VTS:
• HTTPS support now provided for the web interface, to enable secure connections
• FSCK checks now supported
• New server model (VT5900-L) now supported
• SSH support for EMS
• Advanced Integrated Lights Out (iLO) now supported
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 32 VTDs are supported per VTS server.
• Data compression — Allows VTS to compress files as they are written to disk storage
devices. Its use can double the available storage capacity and reduce the amount of
associated storage costs. This feature uses an “on-the-fly” compression algorithm that
creates little processor overhead and can increase performance and throughput by
decreasing the volume of data written to disk.
The following VTS features enable you to simplify and streamline tape operations from the
host server, reduce costs for storage, automate backup and restore operations, and increase
flexibility in managing backed-up data:
• Flexible and extendable, enabling you to create any number of virtual tape pools that
“contain” any number of virtual tapes
• Compatibility with TMF Backup and Restore