Tape - Library Configuration in ESXi

[Kelly_Lipp]

More or less a newbie so be gentle!

1. I know the basics of configuring a tape/library device in ESX: install drivers, configure, etc., install backup software support...(documented elsewhere which I will read) How is this done in ESXi? Can it be done? Short answer if not. Hints, tips, appreciated.

2. Remote console to ESX servers: telnet isn't it, what is? I'm sure the console can be accessed via the net. If answered six hundred times, feel free to whack me. I was here so thought I'd ask.

Thanks,

Kelly Lipp

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Hi Kelly, welcome to the VMware Community forums.

1) With backup and ESX things tend to be a bit different than with an operating system that you would install. It's a bit more complicated with ESXi in that there is no service console that you can use. In general with ESX, if you decide to go tape backup (and it's not necessarily the best way to go) the you would attach an tape device to an Adaptec SCSI card and then present the device to the VM that is running your backup software as a generic SCSI device. The specific support details for that are on page 2 of this document - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_backup_guide.pdf. There's no option for backup software running on ESX itself or an agent running on ESX. There are 3rd party tools like esXpress (they have a free version) but they don't support ESXi yet. You could also use VMware Consolidated Backup (but that's not included with the free version) or a backup script.

2) ESXi does not support SSH by default. The intent is that you'll use the remote command line interface (RCLI) which is available either as a Linux / Windows install or Linux appliance. If this is a test system, you can enable SSH - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_enable_SSH.php. Once you have SSH access you'll find that some things are the same but others are different. One significant issue is that with ESXi and SSH you're interacting with busybox and not a Linix service console VM anymore.

[Kelly_Lipp]

Dave,

Thanks for the insight. Good information here for me and much as I suspected.

So Adaptec SCSI is about it for options? I was hoping for Fiber Channel attached tape and library, but can live with SCSI and wait for the software to improve.

I'll pursue SSH as you describe. I'm not familiar with the ESX interface at this point, so the ESXi interface can't look different to me. Ah, the benefits of ignorance.

Kelly Lipp

CTO

STORServer, Inc.

485-B Elkton Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80907

719-266-8777

www.storserver.com

[Kelly_Lipp]

Dave put me on the right path. SSH functioning, understanding increasing..

ESX documentation states fiber channel tape is not supported. Cool. Question is, will it work. Any thoughts, ideas?

We're thinking load the LTO4 device driver and attempt to configure mt.conf but don't really know.

TIA.

Kelly

[Dave_Mishchenko]

With SSH it's nice to have and to get around the inside of ESXi, but it is best to stick with the RCLI (or to use Powershell).

Fibertape won't be supported as a generic SCSI device, but you might want to look at using NPIV. I haven't used it and don't know if it would be support with tape devices, but it would potentially give you access to the library - see the decription of NPIV here - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_lun_security.pdf.