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Configuring AWS Tape Gateway virtual tape libraries for an IBM Storage 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 Storage 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 Storage Protect supported use cases for AWS Tape Gateway
 
  • image 7005 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 Storage 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 Storage 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:
 
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 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 Storage 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.
image 7005Restriction: IBM Storage Protect can read and write data to a tape only if the tape status is AVAILABLE.  IBM Storage 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.
image 7005Restriction: IBM Storage 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.
 
image 7005 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.
image 7005 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 Storage 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 Storage 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

 

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Document Information

Modified date:
12 May 2026

UID

ibm16326793

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