- an additional copy of the data
- to a different media type (tape)
-- to an additional location (you can move tapes offsite)
+- to an additional location (you can move tapes off-site)
In most restore jobs, only data from the last backup job is restored.
Restore requests further decline the older the data
Tape backups do not provide random access to the stored data. Instead,
you need to restore the data to disk before you can access it
-again. Also, if you store your tapes offsite (using some kind of tape
-vaulting service), you need to bring them onsite before you can do any
+again. Also, if you store your tapes off-site (using some kind of tape
+vaulting service), you need to bring them on-site before you can do any
restore. So please consider that restores from tapes can take much
longer than restores from disk.
As of 2021, the only broadly available tape technology standard is
`Linear Tape Open`_, and different vendors offers LTO Ultrium tape
-drives, autoloaders and LTO tape cartridges.
+drives, auto-loaders and LTO tape cartridges.
There are a few vendors offering proprietary drives with
slight advantages in performance and capacity, but they have
- Multiple vendors (for both media and drives)
- Build in AES-CGM Encryption engine
-Please note that `Proxmox Backup Server` already stores compressed
-data, so we do not need/use the tape compression feature.
+Note that `Proxmox Backup Server` already stores compressed data, so using the
+tape compression feature has no advantage.
Supported Hardware
------------------
-Proxmox Backup Server supports `Linear Tape Open`_ genertion 4 (LTO4)
+Proxmox Backup Server supports `Linear Tape Open`_ generation 4 (LTO4)
or later. In general, all SCSI2 tape drives supported by the Linux
kernel should work, but feature like hardware encryptions needs LTO4
or later.
Drive Performance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Current LTO-8 tapes provide read/write speeds up to 360MB/s. This means,
+Current LTO-8 tapes provide read/write speeds up to 360 MB/s. This means,
that it still takes a minimum of 9 hours to completely write or
read a single tape (even at maximum speed).
Terminology
-----------
-:Tape Labels: are used to uniquely indentify a tape. You normally use
+:Tape Labels: are used to uniquely identify a tape. You normally use
some sticky paper labels and apply them on the front of the
cartridge. We additionally store the label text magnetically on the
tape (first file on tape).
:Barcodes: are a special form of tape labels, which are electronically
readable. Most LTO tape robots use an 8 character string encoded as
- `Code 39`_, as definded in the `LTO Ultrium Cartridge Label
+ `Code 39`_, as defined in the `LTO Ultrium Cartridge Label
Specification`_.
You can either buy such barcode labels from your cartridge vendor,
:Media Set: A group of continuously written tapes (all from the same
media pool).
-:Tape drive: The decive used to read and write data to the tape. There
+:Tape drive: The device used to read and write data to the tape. There
are standalone drives, but drives often ship within tape libraries.
:Tape changer: A device which can change the tapes inside a tape drive
identify tape cartridges and an automated method for loading tapes
(a robot).
- People als call this 'autoloader', 'tape robot' or 'tape jukebox'.
+ This is also commonly known as 'autoloader', 'tape robot' or 'tape jukebox'.
:Inventory: The inventory stores the list of known tapes (with
additional status information).
└───────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴─────────────┘
Tape libraries usually provide some special import/export slots (also
-called "mail slots"). Tapes inside those slots are acessible from
+called "mail slots"). Tapes inside those slots are accessible from
outside, making it easy to add/remove tapes to/from the library. Those
tapes are considered to be "offline", so backup jobs will not use
them. Those special slots are auto-detected and marked as
The ``--changer-drivenum`` is only necessary if the tape library
includes more than one drive (The changer status command lists all
-drivenums).
+drive numbers).
You can show the final configuration with::
``--export`` option.
.. NOTE:: Retention period starts with the existence of a newer
- media set.
+ media set.
- Always create a new media set.
For example, the value ``weekly`` (or ``Mon *-*-* 00:00:00``)
will create a new set each week.
- This balances between space efficency and media count.
+ This balances between space efficiency and media count.
.. NOTE:: Retention period starts when the calendar event
triggers.
You may omit the ``--pool`` argument to allow the tape to be used by any pool.
.. Note:: For safety reasons, this command fails if the tape contain
- any data. If you want to overwrite it anways, erase the tape first.
+ any data. If you want to overwrite it anyway, erase the tape first.
You can verify success by reading back the label::
--export-media-set Export media set upon job completion.
- After a sucessful backup job, this moves all tapes from the used
+ After a successful backup job, this moves all tapes from the used
media set into import-export slots. The operator can then pick up
those tapes and move them to a media vault.
Tepe Encryption Key Password: ***********
If the password is correct, the key will get imported to the
-database. Further restore jobs automatically use any availbale key.
+database. Further restore jobs automatically use any available key.
Tape Cleaning
``tape.cfg``
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
File Format
^^^^^^^^^^^
``tape-job.cfg``
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
File Format
^^^^^^^^^^^
``pmt``
---------
+-------
.. include:: pmt/options.rst
projects / proxmox-backup.git / commitdiff