HP StorageWorks 12000 Gateway Virtual Library System User Guide (AH814-96018, December 2012)

1 Introduction
The HP Virtual Library System (VLS) family consists of RAID disk-based SAN backup devices that
emulate physical tape libraries, allowing you to perform disk-to-virtual tape (disk-to-disk) backups
using your existing backup applications. The VLS family includes different series of models that
vary in storage capacity and performance. Firmware version 6.0.0 marked the change to a 64–bit
operating system on the nodes.
The VLS emulates a variety of physical tape libraries, including the tape drives and cartridges
inside the libraries. You determine the number and types of tape libraries a VLS emulates, and the
number and types of tape drives and cartridges included in each tape library to meet the needs
of your environment. You configure the size of the virtual cartridges in your VLS, which provides
even more flexibility.
The VLS offers many features such as:
• deduplication — storing only a single copy of a data block
• replication — transferring data from virtual cartridges on disk to a remote physical tape library
across the LAN/WAN
• automigration — transferring data from virtual cartridges on disk to a physical tape library
across the SAN
• Secure Erasure — overwriting data on cartridges to ensure that no data can be retrieved
The VLS accommodates mixed IT platform and backup application environments, allowing all your
servers and backup applications to access the virtual media simultaneously. You can specify which
servers are allowed to access each virtual library and tape drive you configure.
Data stored on a VLS is easily cloned to physical tape for off-site disaster protection or long-term
archival using a backup application.
VLS12000 Gateway Components
A VLS Gateway consists of at least two nodes (one primary node and between one and seven
secondary nodes) and dual LAN switches for internal inter-node connections. See the drawing of
racked nodes below. Each VLS12000 Gateway node contains hardware data compression, dual
processors, one 4 Gb four-port Fibre Channel HBA, 48 GB of RAM, and two 500 GB SAS hard
drives.
No external storage is included with the VLS12000; instead, the Gateway uses external storage
in existing arrays.
Figure 1 Racked Gateway Components
DescriptionItem
Nodes1
Ethernet Switches2
10 Introduction