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1 | Tape Backup |
2 | =========== | |
3 | ||
4 | Our tape backup solution provides a easy way to store datastore | |
5 | contents on a tape. This increases data safety because you get: | |
6 | ||
7 | - an additional copy of the data | |
8 | - to a different media type (tape) | |
9 | - to an additional location (you can move tape offsite) | |
10 | ||
11 | Tape backups do not provide random access to the stored | |
12 | data. Instead, you need to restore the data to disk before you can | |
13 | access it again. | |
14 | ||
15 | ||
16 | Tape Technology Primer | |
17 | ---------------------- | |
18 | ||
19 | .. _Linear Tape Open: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open | |
20 | ||
21 | As of 2021, the only broadly available tape technology standard is | |
22 | `Linear Tape Open`_, and different vendors offers LTO Ultrium tape | |
23 | drives and autoloaders. | |
24 | ||
25 | In general, LTO tapes offer the following advantages: | |
26 | ||
27 | - Durable (30 years) | |
28 | - High Capacity (12 TB) | |
29 | - Relatively low cost per TB | |
30 | - Cold Media | |
31 | - Movable (storable inside vault) | |
32 | - Multiple vendors (for both media and drives) | |
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33 | |
34 | ||
35 | Supported Hardware | |
36 | ------------------ | |
37 | ||
38 | Proxmox Backup Server supports `Linear Tape Open`_ genertion 3 | |
39 | (LTO3) or later. In general, all SCSI2 tape drives supported by | |
40 | the Linux kernel should work. | |
41 | ||
42 | Tape changer support is done using the Linux 'mtx' command line | |
43 | tool. So any changer devive supported by that tool work work. | |
44 | ||
45 | ||
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46 | Drive Performance |
47 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
48 | ||
49 | Current LTO8 tapes provide read/write speeds up to 360MB/s. Please | |
50 | note that it still takes a minimum of 9 hours to completely write or | |
51 | read a single tape (even at maximum speed). | |
52 | ||
53 | The only way to speed up that data rate is to use more than one | |
54 | drive. That way you can run several backup jobs in parallel, or run | |
55 | restore jobs while the other dives are used for backups. | |
56 | ||
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57 | Also consider that you need to read data first from your datastore |
58 | (disk). But a single spinning disk is unable to deliver data at this | |
59 | rate. We meassured a maximum rate about 100MB/s in practive, so it | |
60 | takes 33 hours to read 12TB to fill up a LTO8 tape. So if you want to | |
61 | run your tape at full speed, please make sure that the source | |
62 | datastore is able to delive that performance (use SSDs). | |
63 | ||
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64 | |
65 | Terminology | |
66 | ----------- | |
67 | ||
68 | :Tape Labels: are used to uniquely indentify a tape. You normally use | |
69 | some sticky paper labels and apply them on the front of the | |
70 | cartridge. We additionally store the label text magnetically on the | |
71 | tape (first file on tape). | |
72 | ||
73 | .. _Code 39: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_39 | |
74 | ||
75 | .. _LTO Ultrium Cartridge Label Specification: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-lto-ultrium-cartridge-label-specification | |
76 | ||
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77 | .. _LTO Barcode Generator: lto-barcode/index.html |
78 | ||
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79 | :Barcodes: are a special form of tape labels, which are electronically |
80 | readable. Most LTO tape robots use an 8 character string encoded as | |
81 | `Code 39`_, as definded in the `LTO Ultrium Cartridge Label | |
82 | Specification`_. | |
83 | ||
84 | You can either bye such barcode labels from your cartidge vendor, | |
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85 | or print them yourself. You can use our `LTO Barcode Generator`_ App |
86 | for that. | |
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87 | |
88 | .. Note:: Physical labels and the associated adhesive shall have an | |
89 | environmental performance to match or exceed the environmental | |
90 | specifications of the cartridge to which it is applied. | |
91 | ||
92 | :Media Pools: A media pool is a logical container for tapes. A backup | |
93 | job targets one media pool, so a job only uses tapes from that | |
94 | pool. The pool aditionally defines how long we can append data to a | |
95 | tape (allocation policy), and how long we want to keep that data | |
96 | (retention policy). | |
97 | ||
98 | :Tape drive: The decive used to read and write data to the tape. There | |
99 | are standalone drives, but drives often ship within tape libraries. | |
100 | ||
101 | :Tape changer: A device which can change the tapes inside a tape drive | |
102 | (tape robot). They are usually part of a tape library. | |
103 | ||
104 | .. _Tape Library: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_library | |
105 | ||
106 | :`Tape library`_: A storage device that contains one or more tape drives, | |
107 | a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, a barcode reader to | |
108 | identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes | |
109 | (a robot). | |
110 | ||
111 | People als call this 'autoloader', 'tape robot' or 'tape jukebox'. | |
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112 | |
113 | ||
114 | Tape Quickstart | |
115 | --------------- | |
116 | ||
117 | 1. Configure your tape hardware (drives and changers) | |
118 | ||
119 | 2. Configure one or more media pools | |
120 | ||
121 | 3. Label your tape cartridges. | |
122 | ||
123 | 4. Start your first tape backup job ... | |
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124 | |
125 | ||
126 | Configuration | |
127 | ------------- | |
128 | ||
129 | Please note that you can configure anything using the graphical user | |
130 | interface or the command line interface. Both methods results in the | |
131 | same configuration. | |
132 | ||
133 | ||
134 | Tape changers | |
135 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
136 | ||
137 | Tape changers (robots) are part of a `Tape Library`_. You can skip | |
138 | this step if you are using a standalone drive. | |
139 | ||
140 | Linux is able to auto detect those devices, and you can get a list | |
141 | of available devices using: | |
142 | ||
143 | # proxmox-tape changer scan | |
144 | ||
145 | In order to use that device with Proxmox, you need to create a | |
146 | configuration entry: | |
147 | ||
148 | # proxmox-tape changer create sl3 --path /dev/tape/by-id/scsi-CJ0JBE0059 | |
149 | ||
150 | Where ``sl3`` is an arbitrary name you can choose. | |
151 | ||
152 | .. Note:: Please use stable device names from inside | |
153 | ``/dev/tape/by-id/``. Names like ``/dev/sg0`` may point to a | |
154 | different device after reboot, and that is not what you want. | |
155 | ||
156 | You can show the final configuration with: | |
157 | ||
158 | # proxmox-tape changer list | |
159 | ||
160 | The Vendor, Model and Serial number are auto detected, but only shown | |
161 | if the device is online. | |
162 | ||
163 | ||
164 | Tape drives | |
165 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
166 | ||
167 | ||
168 | Media Pools | |
169 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
170 | ||
171 | ||
172 | Tape Jobs | |
173 | ~~~~~~~~~ | |
174 | ||
175 | ||
176 | Administration | |
177 | -------------- | |
178 | ||
179 | Label Tapes | |
180 | ~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
181 | ||
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182 | By default, tape cartidges all looks the same, so you need to put a |
183 | label on them for unique identification. So first, put a sticky paper | |
184 | label with some human readable text on the cartridge. | |
185 | ||
186 | If you use a `Tape Library`_, you should use an 8 character string | |
187 | encoded as `Code 39`_, as definded in the `LTO Ultrium Cartridge Label | |
188 | Specification`_. You can either bye such barcode labels from your | |
189 | cartidge vendor, or print them yourself. You can use our `LTO Barcode | |
190 | Generator`_ App for that. | |
191 | ||
192 | Next, you need to write that same label text to the tape, so that the | |
193 | software can uniquely identify the tape too. | |
194 | ||
195 | For a standalone drive, manually insert the new tape cartidge into the | |
196 | drive and run: | |
197 | ||
198 | # proxmox-tape label --changer-id <label-text> --drive <drive-name> | |
199 | ||
200 | .. Note:: For safety reasons, this command fails if the tape contain | |
201 | any data. If you want to overwrite it anways, erase the tape first. | |
202 | ||
203 | You can verify success by reading back the label: | |
204 | ||
205 | # proxmox-tape read-label --drive <drive-name> | |
206 | ||
207 | If you have a tape library, apply the sticky barcode label to the tape | |
208 | cartridges first. Then load those empty tapes into the library. You | |
209 | can then label all unlabeled tapes with a single command: | |
210 | ||
211 | # proxmox-tape barcode-label --drive <drive-name> | |
212 | ||
213 | ||
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214 | Run Tape Backups |
215 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
216 | ||
217 | Restore from Tape | |
218 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
219 | ||
220 | Update Inventory | |
221 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
222 | ||
223 | Restore Catalog | |
224 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |