May 25, 201610 yr For many years, I've been using hardware RAID on various Windows servers. I'm just about sold on the idea of moving to unRAID with an additional box to just handle my domain and Exchange server. But, I'm stumped in one respect: how do I run a LTO-6 tape drive on an unRAID box? I've searched the forum, and I only find mention of Windows machines. I'm currently using an old Highpoint RockeRAID card to get my external SAS connection to the drive along with Backup Exec and my external Dell drive. Since the vast majority of my storage would be on the unRAID box, it makes sense to move the tape drive to the new unit, but my competence is limited outside of the Windows world, and I'm hoping for suggestions. The only alternative I can think of would be to use a couple of fiber network cards, and try to do my backups across the network, which seems silly. Thanks in advance!
May 25, 201610 yr Why not run a Windows server VM on your UnRaid box and do backups to the tape drive that way? You could simply map drives to the shares you create on UnRaid and back them up to tape inside the Windows VM. I doubt you will be able to get native tape support for the tape drive .
May 25, 201610 yr Strydyr Do you have a need to run a tape drive? I know that LTO-6s can archive about 185TB...so maybe you have a great deal to archive? If you have low utilization of tape (you know, your write is a quick, 30 second write and - that's it, but you do that every day), it might be easier to archive to another drive using a plugin like Unassigned Devices - that would keep all you archival within the realm of unraid. (You may be doing lots of incrementals - or, maybe it's for a small shop and you're writing multiple LTO tapes a day?)
May 25, 201610 yr Author Why not run a Windows server VM on your UnRaid box and do backups to the tape drive that way? You could simply map drives to the shares you create on UnRaid and back them up to tape inside the Windows VM. I doubt you will be able to get native tape support for the tape drive . This would actually solve another goal that I have of getting a backup domain controller, but could the virtual network speed keep up with the tape drive? I've always been stunned at how slow VMWare is when transferring files across virtual ethernet from the same physical box. Do you have a need to run a tape drive? I know that LTO-6s can archive about 185TB...so maybe you have a great deal to archive? If you have low utilization of tape (you know, your write is a quick, 30 second write and - that's it, but you do that every day), it might be easier to archive to another drive using a plugin like Unassigned Devices - that would keep all you archival within the realm of unraid. (You may be doing lots of incrementals - or, maybe it's for a small shop and you're writing multiple LTO tapes a day?) I actually don't write tapes very often. LTO-6 holds 2.5TB of uncompressed data (since my media doesn't compress well, I turn compression off), and I have about 60TB-80TB of data to back up. I go on tape-writing sprees every couple of months - less than often I probably should. Choosing tape vs. extra hard drives was tough, but it made slightly more sense, cost-wise, at the time, and I strongly believe that it's a more shelf-stable medium. I have a large investment in the tapes now, and I'm planning to stay the course for a while.
May 25, 201610 yr I would imagine that the speeds of backing up over the network to tape should be adequate. You haven't divulged what your hardware is for UnRaid, ideally UnRaid likes intel nics and others but it does have issues with some brands too.
May 25, 201610 yr Author I would imagine that the speeds of backing up over the network to tape should be adequate. You haven't divulged what your hardware is for UnRaid, ideally UnRaid likes intel nics and others but it does have issues with some brands too. Would the physical NIC matter between a Windows box in a VM and its unRAID host? Anyway, my new hardware will be a SuperMicro H8DME-2-BL002 2.01A motherboard with quad core Opteron. The exact system is here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/152077521436
May 25, 201610 yr What do you plan to write to the tape drive? The data on unRAID? If so, you are looking to backup linux (slackware). Backup Exec server does not run on linux, it requires Windows. There is a linux client, which could be used.
May 25, 201610 yr Author What do you plan to write to the tape drive? The data on unRAID? If so, you are looking to backup linux (slackware). Backup Exec server does not run on linux, it requires Windows. There is a linux client, which could be used. Yes... I'll probably back-up the unRAID OS itself on something else that's more accessible, but the unRAID arrays would be backed up to tape.
May 25, 201610 yr This would actually solve another goal that I have of getting a backup domain controller, but could the virtual network speed keep up with the tape drive? I've always been stunned at how slow VMWare is when transferring files across virtual ethernet from the same physical box. virtual network speed on a docker should be ... very fast. My memory and understanding is that while it is presented as Gigabit connection it operates at near bus speed. "Near" because there is nominal overhead.
May 25, 201610 yr Author virtual network speed on a docker should be ... very fast. My memory and understanding is that while it is presented as Gigabit connection it operates at near bus speed. "Near" because there is nominal overhead. This sounds like it would work (assuming I can "forward" the external port with the tape drive straight to the VM). Thanks!
May 25, 201610 yr virtual network speed on a docker should be ... very fast. My memory and understanding is that while it is presented as Gigabit connection it operates at near bus speed. "Near" because there is nominal overhead. This sounds like it would work (assuming I can "forward" the external port with the tape drive straight to the VM). Thanks! Docker wont work to get Windows running. Backup Exec is Windows only server.
December 25, 20178 yr Been searching as well since I also already have a tape library. I was able to create the Windows VM with SAS card passed thru. Back ran fine but I was not able to restore to the mapped drive. I could not get the Linux client installed either. So has anyone been able to backup and restore form tape with direct attached library on Unraid server? If so how? Thanks
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