HP StorageWorks 12000 - Virtual Library System EVA Gateway Manual page 116

• Select a storage pooling strategy for the VLS9000 and VLS12000. Identify which pools are used
for which virtual libraries. This could be based on separating cartridges across virtual libraries,
or decreasing the impact of array failure. See
plication, note that this currently supports only one storage pool per VLS.
• For each virtual library, decide if dual SAN fabric design is needed. If so, this requires dual port
virtual library robots and will affect the virtual drive assignment strategy when the system is in LUN
masking mode. See
• Select the virtual library/drive types. The HP ESL-E library type is generally preferred due to its
higher emulation limits, but the HP VLS library type (with the same emulation limits as ESL-E) is re-
commended for Netbackup because this is officially certified.
• Select whether to use shared drives or LUN masked drives. This is based on the number of media
servers that will be using each virtual library and on O/S limitations (such as HPUX versions prior
to 11.31 not supporting more than eight library/tape LUNs per target port). See
Design Guidelines.
• Select how many virtual tape drives are needed per library. See
Configuration.
• If you use LUN masking, determine how many virtual drives need to be assigned to each media
server based on the approximate number of concurrent backups needed for each media server,
and develop a strategy for assigning virtual drives to each media server.
• If you use shared drives, determine the number of drives based on the total number of concurrent
backup streams required. (HPUX versions prior to 11.31 cannot see more than eight library/tape
LUNs per target port.)
• Determine the cartridge sizing. See
• Generally, HP recommends the default 100 GB cartridge size.
• If you plan to enable deduplication on this device, assess the average amount of backup data
per virtual tape drive and decide if the default 100 GB cartridge size should be decreased or
increased. See
• Determine if each virtual library is used as a replication source library; if so, decide if cartridges
need to be created first in this source library or in the target library. See
• Gather virtual cartridge barcode template requirements per library.
• Assess the required number of slots in each virtual library. Methods of calculation:
• Use the total logical amount of tape capacity per library needed to store the retention policy
divided by compression divided by the virtual cartridge sizes.
• Check the current total physical tape usage. If you are not changing the backup retention
scheme when moving to VLS, the amount of virtual tape will be approximately the same as the
current total amount of physical tape (already compressed) divided by the virtual cartridge
sizes.
• If this virtual library will be a replication target, it must contain at least as many slots as the
total number of source slots that are replicating to this target. See
• Gather the required basic device management settings:
• TCP/IP settings for device management (node0). You only need TCP/IP settings for the other
nodes if you will be using replication (every node requires a TCP/IP address for replication).
• SNMP or email notification settings.
• NTP server settings.
Basic Backup Application Configuration
The following steps highlight the considerations for designing the changes needed in the backup
application to optimize for use with a VLS:
116 Virtual Library Systems
Multiplexing, Multistreaming, and
Virtual Libraries/drives/cartridge
Deduplication Preparation.
Storage Pooling. If you are planning to use dedu-
Multipathing.
Virtual Libraries/drives/cartridge
Configuration.
Replication
Backup SAN
Replication Preparation.
Preparation.