Arcserve 11.1 and HP Storageworks USB Tape drive

[MarkDym]

Hello again

I would like to use an external USB tape drive with Arcserve 11.1.

The drive is a HP Storageworks DAT 40 USB External Tape Drive 20/40GB. The only HP Storageworks drives I can find on the Arcserve certified device list are Storageworks Ultriums and a Storageworks70.

I would be interested in hearing if Arcserve can recognise this drive. Has anyone successfully used this with Arcserve 11? Has anyone found it to be incompatible? More information about the drive can be found here

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/dat40usb/index.html

I will appreciate any information anyone can give me about this.

Many thanks

 

[vschumpy]

No this is not supported. Unless explicitly specified otherwise, devices on the certified device list are SCSI/Fibre connection only.

 

[ansiusa]

I am in the same situation with Arcserve 11.5, called tech support, they had no idea. Did you have any success?

 

[vschumpy]

err did you not get the 'not supported' bit

 

[ansiusa]

I was on the phone with their overseas support department, they asked if they could logon to my server, I said no. They then walked me through web interface to see if the drive was listed....it wasn't. Then he asked me what usb meant, I got upset and asked for a supervisor. I never got a reasonable answer.

 

[MarkDym]

Hello ansiusa

I discovered that Arcserve only supports SCSI drives. We bought a DAT72 SCSI external drive instead of the USB model. We also had to purchase a SCSI PCI card. This card simply slots into a free PCI slot and offers SCSI connectivity.

If you do the same, make sure the SCSI ID on the external drive is not set to 0, 7, or another SCSI ID that any existing hardware may use (you can get this info from your BIOS screen).

Good luck

 

[ansiusa]

Thanks for the info....I've used Arcserve for years with SCSI drives, but just purchased one of HP's non-scsi raid servers. My vendor thought he was helping by sending the HP StorageWorks DAT 72 USB instead of the SCSI version.

I can't believe CA isn't going to support this drive, CA support has really gone down hill.

 

[vschumpy]

There are actually very few real USB tape devices on the market, most tape devices that ARCserve supports use SCSI or ATAPI (IDE) miniport drivers and that's how ARCserve communicates with the devices attached to the I/O card. ARCserve doesn't care if you have a device driver for the USB tape drive as it doesn't communicate with it in that way.

For the USB hub/base there is no miniport driver. For USB hard disks the approach is different as these are seen/classed as file system devices and supported differently (in fact if you are familiar with the IOMEGA REV drives, they use what is in reality a form of ejectable hard disk, hence why this device 'works').

Thinking about it, and with my limited knowledge, I really can't see that making ARCserve work with an real USB tape drive as being easy. Most USB support at present is as mentioned done on file system device basis with random access devices, whereas a real USB tape drive is a sequential device (as any real tape device is), so therefore cannot be used in the same way.

Hope this goes some way to explaining why it just isn't architecturally possible with ARCserve at present (in my understanding anyway).

 

[aistswc]

Curious - has anyone tested the Yosemite software successfully for backup and DR restore? I tried once, but had problems with the boot CD image that Yosemite created for me. Fotunately, this was testing purposes only, as the boot CD wiped out the entire hard drive b4 letting me know it couldn't do the restore

steve c.

steve c.
Systems Analyst
Superior Court, USVI

 

[vschumpy]

Steve, I don't have experience with that software, but pretty much all DR recovery software I've seen works on the same principles.

For DR test scenarios I tend to swap out the original disks with a set of blanks if possible, making it easier to fallback if something goes wrong during recovery. I know it doesn't help you right now, but may be it will save you some time and effort in future.

 

[michielpeeters]

Strange at the compatible device list

http://supportconnectw.ca.com/public/storage/infodocs/basb115win/basb115win_cdl.asp#base_usb

the Storageworks Dat72 USB is supported.
I also have a Windows2003 sbs server with a HP Dat72 USB device and Arcserve 11.5 (devicepack3). I'm unable to install the usb tapestreamer.

DOES HAVE ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO INSTALL THE HP DAT72 USB TAPE STREAMER IN ARCSERVE 11.5?

 

[vschumpy]

Support for USB devices was added in SP1 for 11.5 - see the release notes for more information.