This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.Supported Devices and Configuration
Veeam Backup & Replication supports Linear Tape-Open tape libraries starting from 3 generation (LTO3) or later:
- Physical libraries and standalone drives, virtual tape libraries.
- Partitions of the physical or virtual tape libraries presented to the Veeam backup server.
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If you plan to run both Veeam Backup & Replication and 3rd party tape-recording software (for example, in your evaluation lab), consider that Veeam Backup & Replication by default will periodically lock the drive to perform rescan, preventing other software from recording. |
Industry Format
Veeam Backup & Replication uses the MTF (Microsoft Tape Format) industry format to write data to tape.
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Veeam Backup & Replication does not support using WORM (Write Once Read Many) tapes. |
Supported Connection Types
You can connect the tape device directly or remotely.
- Direct connection:
- Fibre Channel (FC)
- Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
- SCSI
- Remote connection:
- iSCSI
Data Block Size
Drives use hardware dependent block sizes to read/write the tape data. Generally, the drives support a range of block sizes and report this range to Veeam Backup & Replication.
If you use a tape library with multiple drives or a number of standalone drives, Veeam Backup & Replication uses a unified block size to write data to tapes. Veeam Backup & Replication collects the block size ranges reported by each drive, compares them and detects a range of block sizes that can be supported by all drives. This range is additionally limited by storage controllers settings used in your infrastructure. From this range, Veeam Backup & Replication supports only values divisible by 1024. You can check the resulting range of block sizes supported by Veeam Backup & Replication for a particular drive in the Drives properties. For details, see Working with Drives.
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If you connect the tape devices via HBA, Veeam Backup & Replication uses the block size configured for the HBA. |
The block size is unified for:
- all drives in one library (if the drives support different block sizes)
- all standalone drives connected to one tape server.
To write data to tape, Veeam Backup & Replication uses the maximum available block size from the supported range. To read data from tape, Veeam Backup & Replication requires that the tape is written with the block size from the supported range (shown in the drive properties).
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Mind the block size range when working with the following tapes:
The tapes must be written with block size that match used for writing such tapes must match the value currently used for the tape device you are using for restore. |
Unknown Medium Changers
Veeam supports medium changers that have no Windows drivers available. Make sure that such device is recognized as the unknown medium changer in the Microsoft Device Manager list.
It is recommended that you use tape devices with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) drivers.
System Requirements and Limitation
Veeam Backup & Replication has the following requirements and limitations to tape devices:
- If multiple driver installation modes are supported for your storage device, make sure the driver is installed in the mode that allows for multiple open handles from a host to a drive to exist at the same time.
- VMware does not support tape drives connected directly to ESX(i) 4.x and later. For more information, see VMware vSphere Release Notes.
For more details and recommendations on configuring vendor-supported tape drives and media changers on ESX/ESXi, refer to VMware documentation at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016407.