62 results about "Virtual tape library" patented technology

A virtual tape library may be configured to delete or free data blocks corresponding to expired backup images. A virtual tape volume may comprise multiple backup images, each corresponding to data stored by a backup application. The backup application may expire individual backup images of a virtual tape volume without expiring the entire virtual tape volume. In contrast to traditional virtual tape libraries, the virtual tape library described herein may delete, free and/or reuse the data blocks corresponding to expired backup images even before the entire virtual tape volume is expired.

A method of importing a plurality of data from a physical data storage device into a virtual tape library system that is used with a data protection application. The virtual tape library system is usable with an existing data protection application designed for use with a physical tape library without modifying the existing data protection application. The method includes: triggering a signal representing a command to import the plurality of data from the physical data storage device; providing a controller that receives the signal; providing a data storage medium in communication with the controller, the data storage medium has at least one virtual library defined thereon; and copying at least a portion of the plurality of data from the physical data storage device to a virtual tape.

A sampling based technique for eliminating duplicate data (de-duplication) stored on storage resources, is provided. According to the invention, when a new data set, e.g., a backup data stream, is received by a server, e.g., a storage system or virtual tape library (VTL) system implementing the invention, one or more anchors are identified within the new data set. The anchors are identified using a novel anchor detection circuitry in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Upon receipt of the new data set by, for example, a network adapter of a VTL system, the data set is transferred using direct memory access (DMA) operations to a memory associated with an anchor detection hardware card that is operatively interconnected with the storage system. The anchor detection hardware card may be implemented as, for example, a FPGA is to quickly identify anchors within the data set. As the anchor detection process is performed using a hardware assist, the load on a main processor of the system is reduced, thereby enabling line speed de-duplication.

A virtual tape storage system includes an original virtual tape library for storing data and includes snapshot virtual tape library (SVTL). The SVTL includes a snapshot of the data stored in the original virtual tape library. A host is operable to receive the snapshot data from the SVTL to perform a disaster recovery test of the original virtual tape library. The SVTL is generated from the original virtual tape library using a copy-on-write snapshot process. In an embodiment, the original virtual tape library stores the stored data on a number of virtual tape volumes (VTVs), and the SVTL includes a snapshot of those VTDs and VTVs which are required for a disaster recovery test of the original virtual tape library. In this case, the host uses the SVTL to perform the disaster recovery test of the original virtual tape library.

Facilitating integration of a virtual tape library system with a physical tape library system. A virtual library tape (VTL) system acts as an intermediary between a physical library tape (PTL) system and a backup host, such that the backup host is always aware of, and can manage the media present in the VTL and also in the PTL. Exporting of data from a virtual tape to a physical tape is performed by the VTL system for high performance. Also a one to one mapping exists between the virtual tape barcode label and the physical tape barcode label, thereby facilitating restores directly from physical tape.

According to one embodiment, a system includes a virtual tape library having a cache, a virtual tape controller (VTC) coupled to the virtual tape library, and an interface for coupling at least one host to the VTC. The cache is shared by all the hosts, and a common view of a cache state, a virtual library state, and a number of write requests pending is provided to all the hosts by the VTC. In another embodiment, a method includes receiving data from at least one host using a VTC, storing data received from all the hosts to a cache using the VTC, sending an alert to all the hosts when free space is low and entering into a warning state, sending another alert to all the hosts when free space is critically low and entering into a critical state while allowing previously mounted virtual drives to continue normally.

Disclosed is a system incorporating a management computer, host computers, a backup server and at least one storage system. Backup data generated in the system are stored in various storage system such as disk array, tape library and VTL (virtual tape library) with various methods such as continuous data protection and snapshot, and management information of the backup data is maintained by the management computer. The management computer conducts transition of mode of the backup data by detecting that a condition to perform the transition is satisfied, determining a plan of transition according to predetermined scenario, performing (instructing) the transition based on the plan and updating the management information of the backup data. By keeping the management information up to date, the management computer can provide a unified means to restore necessary data from the backup data even if the transition (moving and/or change) of the backup data has been performed.

The present invention discloses a virtual tape library (VTL) backup system, and a method of hard disk drive (HDD) power control in VTL devices. In the VTL backup system, a disk control module (DCM) is added to the VTL device and an agent module is added to the backup server. When a backup or disaster recovery (DR) operation is triggered, the agent module in the backup server can inform the disk control module (DCM) in the VTL device to trigger the VTL device to power on all the HDDs before the operation starts, and to power off all the HDDs after the operation ends. Power saving in the VTL device is achieved through power control over the HDDs.

The present invention is a system and method which allows for a VTL system that supports thin provisioning to implicitly unmap unused storage. Such unmap operations may occur even though the VTL system does not receive any explicit unmap requests from its initiators. For example, if a system administrator knows that once a virtual tape drive of the VTL system has been partially overwritten, all previously written data sets on that virtual tape drive will never again be accessed, the system administrator may configure the VTL system so that it unmaps the entire remainder of the virtual tape drive on the first data overwrite.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a method and a device for writing in and reading out data and a virtual tape library device. The method for writing in data comprises the following steps of: when writing data in a disc, writing tape configuration information corresponding to the data in the disc, wherein the tape configuration information is generated in the process of the virtual tape on the disc; and recording a disc identifier of the disc. In the embodiment of the invention, the disc in the VTL can preserve the backup data under an off-line state by writing the data and tape configuration information for backup in the disc and by recording the disc ID. The embodiment of the invention requires no physical tape library as the filing medium, thereby ensuring simple networking and reducing the backup cost.

The invention discloses an embedded type virtual tape library parallel memory system, which mainly comprises a hardware part and a software part, wherein the hardware part comprises an intelligent expanding engine group, a core exchange system and a memory unit. Core virtual tape library management software is run on the platform, and various functions in the parallel virtual tape library system are realized. The embedded type virtual tape library parallel memory system adopts a parallel controller engine structure, and a plurality of engines parallel work and simulate the working state of one tape library. The hardware structures of the engines of the controller are the same and are all based on the adoption of a specially designed main board, and a specially designed control chip and virtual tape library software are integrated on the main board. The number of the parallel engines can be expanded to 32, each engine can be configured with 2 optical fiber host channels and 6 back end optical fiber memory channels, and the optical fiber channels self-adapt to the transmission rates of 2Gb/sec and 4Gb/sec. The multi-engine parallel system design can maximize the I/O performance and memory capacity of the virtual tape library (VTL).

The invention discloses a method and a system for duplicating remote data based on embedded integrated virtual tape libraries, which realize remote data duplication between the embedded integrated virtual tape libraries through a software module of an embedded integrated virtual tape library system. The software module comprises two sub-modules consisting of a server program and a client program, wherein the server program can abstract the embedded integrated virtual tape libraries to form a data source which only supplies data, and the client program requests a server for the data appointed by a user and writes the requested data in a local disk. The embedded integrated virtual tape library comprises the client program and the server program at the same time, and can be the client or the server.

A system and method for exporting a virtual tape from a virtual tape library. The system preferably presents a user with a user interface styled for manipulating a physical tape library. The virtual tape library performs the data storage and retrieval functions. The system includes the user interface having a plurality of user selectable fields styled to interface with the physical tape library. A data storage medium has at least one virtual library and/or virtual tape defined thereon. The data storage medium is capable of storing a plurality of data in the at least one virtual library and/or virtual tape. A physical data storage device is detachably able to be put in communication with the at least one virtual library and/or virtual tape to receive at least a portion of the plurality of data therefrom.

The invention provides storage equipment, comprising an RAID (Redundant Array Of Inexpensive Disk), a RAID driver, a physical disk, a fiber channel (FC)/internet small computer system interface (iSCSI) target end and a VTL (Virtual Tape Library) management module, wherein the RAID disk is divided into two parts, the first part is applied to an RAID function, and the second part is applied to a VTL function; the FC/iSCSI target end is used for receiving a read-write access command from an RAID client and forwarding the read-write access command to the first part of the RAID disk; after the read-write access is completed, the FC/iSCSI target end reports a completion condition to the RAID client; the FC/iSCSI target end is also used for receiving a command from a VTL client and forwarding the command from the VTL client to the VTL management module; and the VTL management module is used for converting the command forwarded by the iSCSI/FC target end into a presentation format of a magnetic tape unit and sending the command of the presentation format of the magnetic tape unit to the second part of the RAID disk.

The embodiment of the invention relates to a configuration information file processing method, a configuration information file processing system, a server, and virtual tape library equipment. The method comprises the following steps of: receiving a virtual tape library equipment configuration information file which is stored by an external server and corresponds to virtual tape library equipment information when the configuration information file is damaged; and performing configuration according to the virtual tape library equipment configuration information file, wherein the configuration information file is formed after the virtual tape library equipment performs the former configuration and comprises virtual tape library equipment information, virtual driver information, virtual tape information, storage resource information and backup server information. The protection mechanism provided by the embodiment of the invention, the reliability is high.

A virtual tape library including a module which is operable to issue input and output commands to a tape drive connected to the virtual tape library, wherein an input command is a command to write data to a tape connected to the tape drive and an output command is a command to read data from a tape connected to the tape drive.