Sun Microsystems Virtual Tape Library manual Configuring and provisioning virtual libraries

Managing virtual libraries

Configuring and provisioning virtual libraries

This section describes the procedures for creating and maintaining virtual libraries, with their virtual drives and media. It documents the following procedures:

■“Setting virtual library system properties” on page 39

■“Creating virtual tape libraries” on page 41

■Setting up optional functionality (see “Configuring Automated Tape Caching” on page 45, “Setting up the Auto Archive feature” on page 49, or “Setting up the Auto Replication option” on page 50)

■“Generating the virtual library” on page 51

■“Creating virtual tapes” on page 56.

▼Setting virtual library system properties

1.In the tree view at the left of the VTL console, right‐click the VirtualTape Library System (A below), and select Properties from the context menu (B).

A

B

2.When the Change VirtualTape Library properties sheet appears, if you wish to use VTL compression software, check the Enable Virtual Tape Library compression mode check box (C below).

Consider your requirements carefully before enabling software compression. Software compression is a computationally demanding operation that consumes processor cycles that would otherwise be used to move data. When you enable the feature, you thus trade throughput performance for capacity. Most VTL solutions are aimed at increasing backup performance. VTL storage is used as a fast, temporary repository for data that will be moved to physical tape for long‐term storage. In such cases, the hardware‐based compression capabilities of physical tape drives provide

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