Configuring AWS Tape Gateway virtual tape libraries for an IBM Spectrum Protect server

Preventive Service Planning

Abstract

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Tape Gateway replaces physical tapes on premises with virtual tapes on AWS. Tape Gateway provides cloud-backed storage by using an iSCSI-based virtual tape library (VTL). You can use Tape Gateway to store virtual tapes in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon S3 Glacier, and Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. The following information is provided to help you configure Tape Gateway VTLs for IBM Spectrum Protect.

Content

AWS Storage Tape Gateway VTL

Starting drive address	Starting storage slot address	Changer address	Starting entry/exit slot address
1000	2000	0	3000

IBM Spectrum Protect supported use cases for AWS Tape Gateway

Important: If your business requirements include fast recovery time objectives (RTOs), consider other storage options. Retrieval of data from S3 Glacier typically takes 3 - 5 hours, and retrieval of data from S3 Glacier Deep Archive typically takes 5 - 12 hours.
The use of AWS Tape Gateway is limited to backup, archive, restore, and retrieve operations.
When you define a storage pool for use with AWS Tape Gateway, set the reclamation threshold to 100. IBM has not tested reclamation of virtual tape volumes that are emulated by AWS Tape Gateway. It is assumed that, with AWS Glacier, running reclamation processes would be more expensive than leaving the data alone.

Supported operating systems

IBM Spectrum Protect supports AWS Tape Gateway on Linux® x86_64 and Microsoft® Windows operating systems.

The following requirements apply to Linux x86_64 systems:

One of the following distributions: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.6 or later or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12, Service Pack 2 or later
iscsi-initiator-utils (for RHEL)
open-iscsi (for SLES)
yast2-iscsi-client (for SLES)
IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.10 or later
IBM Linux lin_taped-3.0.46-1 or later
Persistent Naming Support on Linux
IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT)

The following requirements apply to Microsoft Windows systems:

One of the following 64-bit operating systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 or Microsoft Windows server 2016
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
IBM Spectrum Protect V8.1.10.101 or a subsequent maintenance release
IBM Windows device driver 6.2.6.8 or later (Install_exclusive)
Persistent Naming Support on Windows
IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT)

Supported emulations

The following emulations are supported:

Media changer type: IBM-03584L32-0402 (IBM TS3500)
Drive type: IBM-ULT3580-TD5 (IBM LTO-5)

Obtaining IBM device drivers

An IBM device driver is required for the emulated IBM media changer and IBM LTO drives. You can obtain IBM device drivers at IBM Fix Central. From the menus, select the following options:

Product Group -> System Storage
System Storage -> Tape systems
Tape systems -> Tape drivers and software
Tape drivers and software -> Tape device drivers
Platform -> Select the operating system for the device driver

Unsupported features

The following list provides examples of unsupported features for an AWS Tape Gateway VTL configuration:

Append-only mode (see the CHECKTAPEPOS option)
Control path failover and data path failover
Drive encryption
Logical block protection (LBP)
The storage area network (SAN) discovery option (see the SANDISCOVERY option)
Defining or deleting all drives and paths for a library (see the PERFORM LIBACTION command)
Write Once Read Many (WORM) protection
Generating a backup set for a backup-archive client node (see GENERATE BACKUPSET)
EXPORT command processing (see EXPORT)
Backing up a database (see BACKUP DB)
Backing up primary storage pool data (see BACKUP STGPOOL)

Persistent naming

Persistent naming support is used to ensure that attached devices are always configured with the same logical name based on the SCSI ID, LUN ID, and host bus adapter (HBA), even when the system is rebooted. To prevent possible issues, use persistent naming for device names. To enable persistent naming on Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems, follow the instructions in these IBM technical documents:

Determining the device names of the AWS Tape Gateway iSCSI media changer and drives

You can use different methods to determine the device names that are associated with the AWS Tape Gateway iSCSI media changer and drives. For more information, see the IBM technical document Determining the iSCSI device names on Microsoft® Windows and Linux x86_64.

Example of configuring an AWS VTL with two emulated IBM LTO drives using persistent device names on Microsoft Windows:

define library AWSVTL libtype=VTL resetdrives=no relabelscratch=yes

define path SERVER1 AWSVTL srctype=server destt=libr device=

\\.\changer0

def drive AWSVTL VTLDR1

def path SERVER1 VTLDR1 srctype=server autod=yes desttype=drive library=AWSVTL device=\\.\Tape4801110
def drive AWSVTL VTLDR2

def path SERVER1 VTLDR2 srctype=server autod=yes desttype=drive library=AWSVTL device=\\.\tape4801102

def devclass AWSDC devtype=LTO format=drive libr=AWSVTL estcapacity=100g driveencryption=off
def stg AWSSTG AWSDC col=node reclaim=100 maxscr=99999

def dom AWSdom

def po AWSdom AWSps

def mgmtclass AWSdom AWSps AWSmc

def copygroup AWSdom AWSps AWSmc standard type=backup verexists=nolimit verdeleted=nolimit retextra=nolimit retonly=nolimit destination=AWSSTG

def copygroup AWSdom AWSps AWSmc standard type=archive retver=nolimit destination=AWSSTG

assign defmgmtclass AWSdom AWSps AWSmc

validate po AWSdom AWSps

activate po AWSdom AWSps

reg node AWSBA AWSBA1234 dom=AWSdom maxnummp=9 keepmp=yes

Turning off drive append-only mode

AWS Tape Gateway drive emulation doesn't support append-only mode. To turn off append-only mode, set the CHECKTAPEPOS server option to NO or TSMonly, as shown in the following example:

setopt checktapepos no

Archiving a tape to Amazon S3 Glacier or S3 Deep Archive

To reduce storage costs, you can archive a tape with backed-up or archived data to S3 Glacier or S3 Deep Archive.

To archive a tape, use the following command:

checkout libvolume library_name volume_name remove=bulk

where library_name specifies the name of the library and volume_name specifies the name of the volume.

When you check out a tape from IBM Spectrum Protect with remove=bulk, AWS Tape Gateway marks the tape as read-only and archives it to S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

Determining the status of a virtual tape

To determine the status of a virtual tape, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS Storage Gateway console:
https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home

2. In the navigation pane, click Tapes.

3. In the Status column of the tape library grid, check the status of the tape. The tape status also appears on the Details tab of each virtual tape.

4. To understand tape status information, see Understanding Tape Status Information in a VTL.

Restriction: IBM Spectrum Protect can read and write data to a tape only if the tape status is AVAILABLE. IBM Spectrum Protect can only read data from the tape if the tape status is RETRIEVED.

Retrieving archived tapes from Amazon S3 Glacier or S3 Deep Archive

To retrieve archived tapes, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS Storage Gateway console:
https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home

2. Retrieve the archived tapes from S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive. For instructions, see Retrieving archived tapes.

Retrieving tapes typically takes 3 - 5 hours from S3 Glacier and 5 - 12 hours from S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

3. Check in the retrieved tapes.

Restriction: IBM Spectrum Protect can check in a tape only if the tape's status is RETRIEVED.

To check in the tapes, issue the following command:

checkin libvolume library_name search=bulk checkl=yes status=private

where library_name specifies the name of the library.

Attention: When you issue the CHECKIN LIBVOLUME command, do not specify the STATUS=SCRATCH parameter setting. If you do, the SCRATCH status cannot be assigned, and the tape will be removed from the import/export slot. The failed operation would cause AWS Tape Gateway to archive the tape back to S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

Restriction: All retrieved tapes are read-only.

4. Update the volume and specify read-only access by issuing the following command:

update volume volume_name access=readonly

where volume_name specifies the name of the volume.

Device identifications and firmware levels used during the validation process

The following values were used to validate IBM Spectrum Protect V8.1.10 with AWS Tape Gateway on Linux:

Library ID: IBM 03584L32, firmware: 0402
Drive ID: IBM ULT3580-TD5, firmware: 0103

The following values were used to validate IBM Spectrum Protect V8.1.10.101 with AWS Tape Gateway on Microsoft Windows:

Library ID: IBM 03584L32, firmware: 0402
Drive ID: IBM ULT3580-TD5, firmware: 0103

Related resources

IBM Spectrum Protect: Configuring virtual tape libraries
IBM Spectrum Protect: Defining a backup copy group
IBM Spectrum Protect: Defining an archive copy group
Technote 320299: Relabeling volumes for VTLs
Technote 403513: General considerations about VTLs for IBM Spectrum Protect (formerly Tivoli Storage Manager) servers

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Configuring AWS Tape Gateway virtual tape libraries for an IBM Spectrum Protect server

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