Sun Microsystems Virtual Tape Library User manual

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Software
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User manual
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Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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Virtual Tape Library
VTL User Guide
Part No. 96267
May 2008, Revision G
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96267 • G iii
Revision History
Short Name Part # Revision Date Comments
VTL User Guide 96267 Nov 2006 Base document supplied by the
vendor.
A Jan 2007 Major revision.
B Mar 2007 Published. EC 131376.
C Aug 2007 Major revision.
D Nov 2007 Minor revision.
E Feb 2008 Major revision to cover VTL Plus 2.0
F Mar 2008 Major revision to the commandline
appendix
G May 2008 Revised for VTL Plus 2.0 Update 1.
iv VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
96267 • G v
Contents
About this book xi
1. Introductio n:VTLappliancesand enterprisedataprotect ion 1
Features 2
AdvantagesofVTLtape virtualization 4
Shorterruntimes andreduceddependencyonbackupwindows 4
Shorterruntimesfornon sequentialbackupjobs 5
Improvedreliability 5
Betterutilizationoftapesubsystems 5
Improvedutilizationofbackupmedia 6
Larger,moreflexiblelibraries 6
CompatibilitywithACSLSmanagementsoftware 6
Truetapevirtualizationwithdynamically
allocateddiskspace 7
KeyVT L featuresandoptions 8
NDMPmigration 8
VTLhighavailabilityoption 9
AutomatedTapeCach ing 12
Virtualtapereplication 12
VTLSecureTapeen cryptio noption 14
vi VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
2. UnderstandingVTLZoning 15
Zoningforstandardavailabilitysystems 15
Zoningforhighavailabilitysystems 16
3. UsingtheVTLconsole 19
RunningtheVTLconsoleapplication 20
Populatingthec ons ole 20
UnderstandingtheVTLcons oleinterface 22
VirtualTapeLibrarySystem 24
SANClien ts 25
Reports 25
PhysicalResources 26
4. VTLoper ation s 27
Managingnetworkconnectivity 27
Managingvirtuallibraries 33
Configuringphysicallibrari esandde vices 34
Configuringandprovis ioningvirtuallibraries 39
Creatingvirtual
tapes 56
Connectingvirtuallibrarieswithstorageclients 64
ControllingVTL virtuallibraries withACSLS 70
Backingupthe VTLsystemconfiguration 75
Recoveringthese rverconfiguration 79
ProtectingVTLmetadata 79
Administeringuseracountsandpasswords 82
Virtualtapedrivecompression 84
Managingtapes 86
Locatingvirtualtapes 86
Replicatingtapes 86
96267 • G Contents vii
Copyingtapes 104
Movingtapesbetweenvirtualandphysicallibraries 107
Managingtapecach ing 120
Creatingandviewingreports 123
Encryptingandshreddi ng data 127
WorkingwiththeEventLog 135
UsingtheAttentionRequiredtab 138
ManagingVTLservers 140
5. Instal ling theVTLconsole 143
6. Recoveryfollowingasystemfailure 147
Failback 147
Resumingbackupsfollowingafailover/failback 157
7. Configuringemail alerts 159
8. UpdatingVTLsoftware 165
A. VT Lcomm andline
reference 169
Usingthecommandlineutility 169
Commands 169
Commonarguments 170
Login/logouttothe VTLServer 171
LogintotheVTLServer 171
LogoutfromtheVTLServer 172
Virtualdevice s/Cl ient s 172
Getvirtualdevicelist 172
GetClientvirtualdevicelist 173
Addclient 174
Deleteclient 174
viii VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
Getclientproperties 175
Assignvirtualdevice 175
Unassignvirtual device 176
Createvirtualdevice 177
Deletevirtualdevice 177
Getsupportedvirtuallibraries 178
Getsupportedvirtualdrives 179
Createvirtualtapelibrary 179
Addvirtualtapedrive 181
Createstandalonetapedrive 182
Createvirtualtape 183
Movevirtualtape 184
Tapecopy 186
Settapeduplication 186
Settapeproperties 187
Automatedtapecaching 189
Settapecaching 189
Syncphysicaltapes 191
Migratevirtual
tapes 192
Reclaimdiskspace 193
Renewcache 193
Systemconfiguration 194
Addalicensekeycode 194
Removealicensekeycode 195
GetVTLinfo 195
Import/Export 196
Importtape 196
Exportvirtualtape 197
96267 • G Contents ix
Getimport/exportjobstatus 198
Resumeimport/exportjobs 199
Deleteimport/exportjobs 200
Suspendimport/exportjobs 200
Cancelimport/exportjobs 200
Replication 201
Createarepli ca 201
Promoteareplica 203
Removereplication 203
Suspendreplication 204
Resumereplication 205
Setreplication properties 205
Getreplicationproperties 206
Getreplicationstatus 207
Startreplication 207
Stopreplication 208
Physicaldevices 208
Inventoryphysicaltapelibrary 208
Getphysicalta p elist 209
Movephysicaltape 209
Ejectphysicaltape 210
Assignphysicalresource
toVTL 211
Unassignphys icalresourcefromVTL 211
Getphysicaldeviceinformation 212
Rescanphysicaldevices 213
Importdisk 213
PreparephysicaldeviceforVTLserver 214
Reports 215
x VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
Serverthroughputreport 215
SCSIchannelthroughputreport 216
Devicethroughputreport 217
Physicalresourcesconfigurationreport 218
Diskusagereport 218
Physicalresourcesallocationrepor t 219
Specificphysicalresourceallocationreport 219
FibreChanneladapterconfigurationre por t 220
Replicationstatusreport 220
Virtuallibraryinformationrepor t 221
Virtualtapeinformationreport 222
Createjobrepo rt 223
EventLog 224
GetEventLog 224
Technicalsupport 225
GetXRay 225
Getattentionre quiredinformation 226
B. R equ iredports 227
C. Troubleshooting 229
Problemsduringconsoleoperations 229
Problemsaffectingphysicalresources 232
Problemswithvi rtualresources 233
Problemsduringimport/exportoperations 237
TakinganX rayfortech nicalsupport 239
D. SNM Ptraps 243
E. ILOMcommandreference 275
96267 • G xi
Aboutthisbook
Thisbookintroducestapevirtualizationandguidesyouthroughtheadministration
ofSunStorageTek VirtualTapeLibrary(VTL)solutions,includingVTLPlus2.0and
VTLValuesystems.It startswith ahighlevelexplanationofVTLtechnology,
commondeploymentarchitectures,andspecialfeatures.Itthenprovidesdetailed
instructionsforcarryingout
thetaskscommontoVTLadmini strati onaccordingto
SunVTLbest practices,including:
SANzoning
usingtheVTLConsolegraphicaluserinterface(GUI)andinstallingcopieson
managementstation s
administeringlocalareanetwork(LAN)connections
designing,creating,an dmanagingvirtuallibrari es andvirtualtapes
usingspecialfeatureslikeautomatictapecachi ng, automatictapearchiving,and
tapereplication
usingencryptionanddatacompressionfeaturesto bestadvantage
handlingfailbackafterahighavailabilitysystemhasfailedover
reporting
configurin g andusingemailnotifications
Finally,appendicesprovideadditionalinformationthat,while notesse nt ia ltoa
normalinstalla tion, mayproveusefulinspecialcircumstances.
Thedocum entistaskorien ted ,organizedaroundtheworkyouhavetodoratherthan
aroundthefeaturesorcomponentsoftheproduct.Eachchapterandsection
begins
withalist ofthetasksitcontains.Tasksarepresentedinorder,andthestepsineach
processarenumbered,inthesequenceinwhichtheyaretobeperformed.
Conditionalsteps(stepsthatyouperformonlyinspecifiedcircumstances)begin
withthecondition(“IfA...”) and
endwiththecorrespondingaction(“...do B”); if
theconditiondoesnotapply,yousimplyskipthestep.Eachtaskendswitha
referencetothenexttaskin thesequence:
Nexttask:“Installing...” onpage 3.
xii VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
Whenthe setupprocessbranches,thetaskendswithconditionalalternatives:
Nexttask:
Ifthecustomerdoesnotplanto runthemanagementconsolefromahoston
thelocalareanetwork(LAN),pressSkip,andgotothenexttask.
Otherwise,carryouttheprocedure “Configuringthe EthernetLAN”on
page 57.
Whenyouhavefinishedasequenceoftasks,thisisclearlynoted:
Stop here.
Tominimizethetimeyouspendswitchingbetweenpublicationsorbet weenmajor
sectionsofthedocument,wehavemadeanefforttoavoidcrossreferencesto
externalinformation
whereverpossible.Ifyouneedtohaveafigure,atable,ora
procedure, itshouldalwaysbe,atworst,onaneighboringpage.
Takingadvantageofthisbook’shypertextfeatures
Ifyouchoosetoviewthisbookonline,ratherthaninprintedform,you canjump
quicklytoanypartofthebookbyclickingonthecorrespondingentryunderthe
BookmarkstabontheleftsideoftheAdobeAcrobatinterface.Inaddition,clicking
onentriesinthetableof
contents,crossreferences,orreferencestosubsequenttasks
willtakeyoudirectlytotheindicatedpartofthedocument.Youcanthenusethe
backarrowon theAdobeAcrobatReadertoreturn,ifdesired,tothepointyouleft.
Inaddition,clickingonmostUniformResourceLocators(URLs)and
onmost
referencestoonlineresourceswillopenyourdefaultwebbrowsertothe
correspondingwebpage,so thatyou can,ifnecessar y,obtainarequireddownload
immediately (beaware,however,URLstospecificpag es ch angefrequentlyandmay
notalwaysbeaccurate).
96267 • G About this book xiii
Understandingtheconventionsusedinthisbook
Thetablebelowillustratestheconventionsthatrepresentliteralandvariablevalues,
commands,andpropertynamesinthisbook.
Obtainingth elatestinformation andsupportingresources
TheSunStorageTekSupportportal<www.support.storagetek.com>provides
linkstothelatestdocumentation,softwareupdates,andlicensingresourcesforVTL
Plussolutions.Alwayschecktheportalforupdatestothisdocumentbefore
proceeding.DocumentsdistributedonCDROMmaynotreflectthelate stchangesto
VTLhardware,software,andservices.
Commentingonthisbook
Sunwelcomesyour commentsandsuggestionsforimprovingthisbook.Contactus
at[email protected]. Pleaseincludethetitle,partnumber,issuedate,andrevision:
VTL User Guide,partnumber96267(May2008Revision G).
Convention Meaning Examples
AaBbCc123 Fixedwidthtextisusedfor literal values,
includin g namesofcommands,files,
directories,literalcomputerinputs/outputs,
andUniformResource Locators(URLs)
Edityour.loginfile.
Use ls -a tolistfiles.
% You have mail.
AaBbCc123
AaBbCc123
Obliquetextisused for variablesthatstand
forrealnamesorvaluesandfor booktitles.
Todeleteafile,
type:
rm
filename.
ABCD Bold,sa nseriftext indicate s calloutsin
illustr at ion s.
Click Submit (A below).
1. Numberedpa ragr aphs indicatest eps ina
processthatshouldbeexecutedinsequential
order.
Bulletedparagraphsindicatelistsof
alternativesorcomponents.
[
VTL_Plus]#acommandlinepr om p t
xiv VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
96267 • G 1
CHAPTER
1
Introduction:VTLappliancesand
enterprisedataprotection
SunStorageTekVirtualTapeLibrary(VTL)technologymakesthebenefitsofdiskto
disktotapearchitectureavailabletocomplex backupenvironmentsthatcannot
readilyaccommodatethedisruptionsandadministrativeburdensthatoften
accompanymajorchangestoinformationmanagementenvironm entsandprocesses.
VTLsol uti ons makediskmediaavailabletoapplicationsthatare
configuredtowork
withtape.VTLsoftwarepresentsyourexistingtapecentricbackuparchitecturewith
whatappeartobe familiar tapelibra rie s, drives,anddatacartridgeswhilemanaging
thecomplexitiesoftheimplementation—diskarrays,RAIDgroups,andlogical
volumes—internally.
Suchtransparencyisa bso lutely criticalwhenbackupisjustoneaspect
ofan
enterprisewidebusinesscontinuityplan.Whenlegacysystemsand multiple,
interdependentapplications,procedures,policies,and/orserviceprovider sare
involved,evenmodestchangestoabackuparchitecturecan haveunforeseen,far
reachingconsequences.
Theadvantagesthatdisktodiskbackuphastoofferarenolesscriticalincomplex
environments.
Heavyworkloads,tightschedules,andmultipledependenciesoften
makebackupwindowsverytightornonexistent.Jobsthatfailto completecannot,
inmostcases,beretried.Tapebasedbackupsystemsperformwellwhenhandling
bigjobs,likefullbackupsoflargefilesandfilesystemsthat canstreamlarge
amountsofsequentialdata.Butmuchofthe currentbackupworkloadconsistsof
intermittent,essentiall y randomI/O—incrementals,fullbackupsofheterogeneous
smallserversandworkstations,andsmallfiles(suchas thoseassociatedwithemail
systems).Tapedrivesperformpoorlyundertheseconditions.Butdiskbasedstorage
isideallyplacedtohandle
thistypeofI/O.
Theremainderofthischapterprovides:
abriefsummaryofVTL“Features”onpage 2
adetaileddiscussionofthe“A d v a n t a g e s ofVTLtapevirtualization”onpage 4
amoreindepthlookatselected,“KeyVTLfeaturesandoptions”onpage 8.
Features
2 VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
Features
TheSunStorageTekVTLsolutionhasthefollowingfeatures:
Emulationofmostwidelyusedtapelibra rie s, drives,andmedia types,including
thelatestSunStorageTekT10000seriesdrivesan d media
Dynamicallocationofdiskcapacity
VTLsoftwarecanallocatediskspacetovirtualtapesin5GBincrements, upto
thefull,ratedcapacityoftheemulated media.Thisminimizeswastedspace,
providesnaturalloadbalancing,andoptimizestheperformanceofthediskarray.
AutoArchivefeature
TheAuto Archiveoptionwritesdatatoph ys i c altapewheneverabackup
applica ti o norutilitymovesavirtualtapefromavirtuallibrarytoan
import/exportslot.Thephys i cal tapelibrarymustsupportbarcodes:the VTL
softwarehastofindamatchingbarcodeinthephysicallibraryin
ordertoexport
avirtualtapetoaphysicalcartrid ge.
ReplicationoftapestolocalandremoteVTLsystems
VTLsoftwaresupportsmanualcopyingandbothevent‐andpolicydriven
automaticreplicationmethods.
AutomatedTapeCachingoption
Withtheoptionaltapecachingfeature,VTLsoftwarecanautomaticallysavea
singlevirtualvolumewithasinglebarcodeintwophysical forms,oneondisk
andoneonphysicaltape .Thetapecachingfeaturemanagesretentionand
migrationofthephy si c al images,underthecontrolof
userspecifiedpoliciesand
schedules.Thisletsuserskeepspaceinthediskcachefreefornewbackupsets
whilere tain ing thetapeimagesofoldervirtualvolumes.Whenavirtualvolume
nolongerresidesinthediskcache,apointerinthecacheseamlesslyredirects
requeststothetapeimage.
Highavailabilityoption
Anoptional,hi gh availabilityconfigurationprovidesintelligentfailover,with
duplicate,selfmonitoringVTLservernodesandredundant,primaryandst andby
pathsbetweenbackupapplication sand VT Ldata.
Encryptionandsecuredatade struct ion
Toensurethatthedatathatyouexporttophysi cal tapeisconfidentialandse cu re,
VTLoffersaSecureTapeOptionthatusestheAdvancedEncryptionStandard
(AES)algorithmpublishedbytheNationalInstituteofSt an dards andTechnology,
anagencyoftheU.S.government.
Features
96267 • G Chapter 1 Introduction: VTL appliances and enterprise data-protection 3
TheShredfeatureinsuresmilitarystandard,securedatadestructionby
overwritingvirtualtapewithrandombitpatterns.Datadestructionjobsare
queuedsothattheshredprocessdoesnothaveanexcessiveimpactupon
performance.
Datacompression
SunVTLPlus2.0supportsbothsoftwarebasedandhardwarebaseddata
compression.
Bothdatacompressiontechnologiesoffersimilarfunctionality.Botharebasedon
theLZOalgorithm.Whennecessary,eithercanincreasetheamountofdatathat
willfitonavirtualtapeofagivencapacity.Compressionratios
canapproach2:1
fordatasetsmadeupofhighlycompressib lefiletypes,suchasplaintextand
uncompressedbitmappedimages(incompressiblefiletypes,suchasZIParchi ves,
GIFimages,andJPGim ag es reducetheatta ina ble compressionproportionately).
However,theoptionalVTLPlus2.0compressionhardwareofferssignificantly
higherthroughputperformance
comparedwiththesoftwareonlyapproach.
SpecializedASICs(applicationspecificin tegr ated circuits)ontheoptional
compressioncardsperformthecalculationsthatsoftwareonlysol utionsmust
performonthesys temCP U.
SupportforSunStorageTekACSLSandLibraryStationlibrarymanagement
software
ACSLSandLibraryStationsupportmakesahighdegreeofintegrationp oss ib le
betweenVTLsolutionsandcomplexenterprisestorageenvironmentsthatinclude
largelibrarieswithmultiplepartitionsandmixedopensystemsandmainframe
systems.SunVTL virtuallibrariescancache
orcopytapevolumestostorage
poolsonshared,ACS LSmanagedlibraries.Al terna tively,ACSLSca n be
configuredtomanagevirtuallibraries.
Emailnotifications
TheVTLemailalertsfeaturemonitorsanextensiblesetofpredefinedcritical
systemfunctionsandautomaticallynotifiesalocalsys temadministratorbyemail.
You ca n extendor modifytheCallHomemoni toring scriptstocustomi z e
monitoringforyourneeds.
Xraydiagnostics
TheXray featurecombinessnapshotsofthe currentstateoftheappliance,its
configuration,anditsenvir onmentwithsystemeventlogsandsavestheresultin
astandard,tapearchive(tar)format.
KeyVTLfeaturesarediscussedinmoredetaillaterinthischapter.
Advantages of VTL tape virtualization
4 VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
AdvantagesofVTLtapevirtualization
AddingSunStorageTekVirtualTapeLibraryappliancestoanexistingtapebased
backuparchitecturecanthusrealizethefollowingadvantages :
“Shorterruntimesandreduceddependency onbackupwindows”onpage 4
“Shorterruntimes fornonsequentialbackupjobs”onpage 5
“Improvedreliability”onpage 5
“Betterutilizationoftapesubsystems”onpage 5
“Larger, moreflexiblelibraries”onpage 6
“CompatibilitywithACSLS managementsoftware”onpage 6
“Truetapevirtualizationwithdynamicallyallocateddisk space”onpage 7.
Shorterruntimesandreduceddependencyon
backupwindows
VTLappliancescanhandleanarrowbackupwindowbyusingnumbersofvirtual
drivesoperatinginparallel,somethingthatwouldbehighlyimpractic al with
physical tapedrives.Inthisway,thecritical,fir stcopyoftheprimarydataisreliably
transferredtodiskbasedvirtualtapeinminimumtime.Thereafter,vaulting
softwareand/or VT L tapecachingfeaturesca n copythebackupfromvirtualto
physical mediausinga smaller,moreeconomicalnumberofphysicaldrives.Seethe
figurebelow:
Multiple virtual drives speed backup during the critical backup window
virtual
tape
drives
virtual library
physical library
primary storage
physical
tape
drives
Back up to multiple virtual tape
drives during the critical
backup window
At other times, copy virtual tapes to
physical media using one or two
dedicated tape drives
backup
window
Advantages of VTL tape virtualization
96267 • G Chapter 1 Introduction: VTL appliances and enterprise data-protection 5
Shorterruntimesfornonsequentialbackupjobs
DiskbasedVTLsystemsreduceruntimewhenstorageoperationsarepoorly
matchedtotheoperationalcharacteristicsoftape backupsystems.Properly
configured,streamingtapebackupsachievetransferratesthat areashighasor
higherthanthoseattainable bydisktechnology.Butmanycommo n jobs— suchas
incrementalsandfullbackups
ofworkstations—producesemi random I/ O . Non
sequentialI/Okeep stapedrivesbusymounting,unmounting,andpositioning
media,greatlyreducingthroughput.Diskbased secondarystorageismuchbetter
suitedtothese semirandombackupjobs.
Improvedreliability
DiskbasedVTLsystemscansignific ant ly increasethereliabilityofthebackup
process.Backupjobsaremore lik el ytosucceedthefirsttime,becausethecritical
step—thecreationofacopyofthedata—isasimple ,fastwritetoaRAIDsubsystem.
Jammedtapes,lackofreadymedia,andoffline
drivesnolongerruinjobs.See the
figurebelow:
Backup is more reliable with virtual tape libraries
Betterutilizationoftapesubsystems
DiskbasedVTLsystemscanimproveutilization,performance,andreliabilityof
tapestoragesubsystems.WhennonsequentialI/Oisbackeduptodisk,tapecanbe
reservedforsequentialjobsthatcanstreamaphysicaltapedrive.Largescalefull
backupscan,forinstance,godirectlytotape,insuringmaxim umperformance .
Jobs
virtual
library
physical
library
primary storage
A backup to physical tape can fail when a tape
drive jams or media breaks, because a retry may
not be possible before the backup window closes.
physical
library
backup window
FAILURE!
SUCCESS!
A backup to disk-based virtual media always
succeeds, so all data is copied to secondary
media before the backup window closes.
Virtual volumes are
subsequently copied to
physical media outside
the backup window. If
problems arise, copy jobs
can be retried later.
Advantages of VTL tape virtualization
6 VTL User Guide May 2008 G • 96267
thatproduceintermittentornonsequentialI/O,suchasincrementalsandbackupsof
workstatio ns, arecopiedtotapeonlyafter the yhavebeenbackeduptodiskand
incorporatedintolarge,sequentialbackupsets.Th is approachusestapedrives
continuously,atclosetotheirmaximumthroughput.Thedrivesspendless
timeidle,
sincetheymountandrepositionlessoften.Fewerdrivesandtapesareneededfora
givenworkload.Devicesandmedia suffer lesswearandtear.
Improvedutilizationofbackupmedia
Tapevirtualizationletsyoucreateemulatedtapevolumesthataremorecloselysiz ed
totheaveragesizeofyourbackupmedia.Ifyoudonotdecidetousetapecaching
(see“A u t o m a t e d TapeCaching” onpage 12),yousetthemaximumcapacityofyour
virtualtapesto 5060GBorto
theaveragesizeofyourbackupjobs(whicheveris
larger).Thisapproac h minimizeswastedspaceinthe criticaldiskcache,wherethe
firstcop yofeachbackupjobisstored,andmakesamaximumnumberofcartridges
availableforbackupjobsatanygiventime.Yourcopy/vaultsoftwarecanthen
consolidatethesesmallervolumesontofullsizedphysicaltape cartridgesoutside
thebackupwindow.Ifyoualsoenlargethesizeofthelibrary,asdescribedbelow,
youcanaccomodatea larg ertotalnumberofthesesmallervirtualtapes.
Ifyouadopttapeca ch in g, youcannotsizevirtualtapesthisway,since,
asweshall
see,thediskandph y sic al tapeimagesofthevirtualtapemustbelogicallyidentical.
Larger,moreflexiblelibraries
TheSun VTL virtuallibraryfaithfullyemulate saSunL700physical tapelibrary.
But,whiletheL700has678slots ,theSun V TL canhaveupto64000inanontape
cachingsolution,dependingonthebackupapplicati o n(see“A u t o m a t e d Tape
Caching”on page 12). Thisisaparticul ar ly importantconsiderationifyou
improve
mediautilizationbyreducingthesizeofyourvirtualtapevolumes,asdescribed
above.Onelargevirtuallibrarycan,on itsown,servealltheneedsofabackup
applicationmasterserver.
CompatibilitywithACSLS managementsoftware
Tapevirtualizationletsyoucontro ldiskbasedvirtuallibrarieswiththe same
industrystandard,SunACSLSsoftwarethatcontrolsphysicaltape libraries.ACS LS
addsanad dit ional virtualizationlayertoyourbackupenvironment,further
reducingdisruptionstoestablishedinfrastructure an d polici eswhile,atthesame
time,bringingnewcapabili t ies.
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Sun Microsystems Virtual Tape Library User manual

Category
Software
Type
User manual

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