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StarWind Virtual SAN®

Virtual Tape Library on Amazon

Web Services with Microsoft

System Center Data Protection

Manager 2016 MAY 2017

TECHNICAL PAPER

TECHNICAL PAPER 2


Virtual Tape Library on Amazon Web Services with Microsoft

System Center Data Protection Manager 2016

Trademarks

“StarWind”, “StarWind Software” and the StarWind and the StarWind Software logos are registered

trademarks of StarWind Software. “StarWind LSFS” is a trademark of StarWind Software which may be

registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Changes

The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. While

reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this document to assure its accuracy,

StarWind Software assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document, or from

the use of the information contained herein. StarWind Software reserves the right to make changes in

the product design without reservation and without notification to its users.

Technical Support and Services

If you have questions about installing or using this software, check this and other documents first -

you will find answers to most of your questions on the Technical Papers webpage or in StarWind

Forum. If you need further assistance, please contact us.

In 2016, Gartner named StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms”.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and

does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other

designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization

and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or

implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a

particular purpose.

About StarWind

StarWind is a pioneer in virtualization and a company that participated in the development of this

technology from its earliest days. Now the company is among the leading vendors of software and

hardware hyper-converged solutions. The company’s core product is the years-proven StarWind

Virtual SAN, which allows SMB and ROBO to benefit from cost-efficient hyperconverged IT

infrastructure. Having earned a reputation of reliability, StarWind created a hardware product line and

is actively tapping into hyperconverged and storage appliances market. In 2016, Gartner named

StarWind “Cool Vendor for Compute Platforms” following the success and popularity of StarWind

HyperConverged Appliance. StarWind partners with world-known companies: Microsoft, VMware,

Veeam, Intel, Dell, Mellanox, Citrix, Western Digital, etc.

Copyright ©2009-2017 StarWind Software Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

written consent of StarWind Software.

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http://www.starwindsoftware.com/contact-us

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Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 4

What is Virtual Tape Library ........................................................................................................... 5

What is Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2016 ....................................... 5

Prerequisites ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Pre-Configuring the Servers ........................................................................................................... 6

Installing System Center Data Protection Manager 2016 ....................................................... 7

Deploying StarWind VTL on AWS .................................................................................................. 7

Configuring Virtual Tape ............................................................................................................... 12

Integrating VTL with SCDPM ........................................................................................................ 18

Adding VTL to SCDPM ................................................................................................................... 22

Creating Protection Group ........................................................................................................... 24

Restoring data from the VTL ........................................................................................................ 30

Configuring tape optimization for DPM .................................................................................... 35

Configuring DPM for the short erase tape feature ................................................................ 36

Contacts ............................................................................................................................................ 38

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Introduction

To date, many companies are still using a Tape Library to store backups in their IT

infrastructure, since this is a fairly cheap and simple way to store data. Nevertheless, it also

has certain drawbacks, such as increased data access time, potential media issues,

management complexity, etc.

Over recent years, the price trends for HDDs have decreased significantly. Thus, it’s no

wonder that HDDs keep garnering more interest as a means for storing backups.

StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL) is a software solution that allows you to emulate physical

Tape Libraries while storing data on the hard disk drives. The solution targets companies

that want to completely quit using the physical Tape Library, as well as simplify and

accelerate the process of data backup and recovery.

This guide is intended for IT professionals and experienced StarWind users who want to

integrate StarWind Virtual Tape Library in their infrastructure. The guide provides a step-by-

step guidance on how to configure the StarWind Virtual Tape Library, deploy it in Amazon

Web Services, integrate it with the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2016

and use it further as the storage solution for backups and recovery in the Amazon cloud

storage.

A full set of up-to-date technical documentation can always be found here, or by pressing

the Help button in the StarWind Management Console.

For any technical inquiries please visit our online community, Frequently Asked Questions

page, or use the support form to contact our technical support department.




https://www.starwind.com/starwind-faq

https://www.starwind.com/support-form

https://www.starwind.com/support-form

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What is Virtual Tape Library

Virtual Tape Library is a data storage virtualization technology, usually used as a backup storage

device. The solution allows to present various storage devices (usually hard disks) to the system

as tape drives or tape libraries and thereby make them compatible with the existing backup

systems.

What is Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager

2016

Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2016 (SCDPM) is a Microsoft software product

designed to manage the enterprise backup and recovery system. You can find more information

on the SCDPM capabilities following the link.

Prerequisites

Before you start the deployment process, make sure your infrastructure meets the following

requirements:

• An Amazon Web Service (AWS) subscription;

• Ability to set up a VPN connection between a VM with StarWind VTL deployed in AWS and a

SCDPM VM deployed in your infrastructure.

Use the following procedures to set up the VPN connection in the AWS.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/dpm/dpm-overview

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/vpn-connections.html

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Pre-Configuring the Servers

The diagram below illustrates how StarWind VTL integrates with Microsoft System Center Data

Protection Manager 2016.

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Installing System Center Data Protection Manager 2016

You can install SCDPM in different ways. The below articles provide references to different

deployment scenarios you can come across when dealing with Microsoft System Center Data

Protection Manager 2016:

• How to install SCDPM 2016 on Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016

• How to Automate the installation of SCDPM 2016 on Windows Server 2016

• How to Deploy SCDPM 2016 using SCVMM 2016 on Windows Server 2016

Please choose the one that suits your environment and install Microsoft System Center Data

Protection Manager 2016.

Deploying StarWind VTL on AWS

1. To deploy StarWind VTL on AWS, follow the link and look through the information

provided. Click the "Continue" button once you have finished.

Please note: StarWind provides a 5 day- trial for StarWind VTL.

https://charbelnemnom.com/2016/10/how-to-install-dpm-2016-on-windows-server-2016-and-sql-server-2016-dpm-sysctr-ws2016-sql2016/

https://charbelnemnom.com/2017/01/how-to-automate-the-installation-of-dpm-2016-on-windows-server-2016-scdpm-ws2016-sysctr/

https://charbelnemnom.com/2017/01/how-to-deploy-dpm-2016-using-vmm-2016-on-ws2016-scdpm-scvmm-sysctr-hyperv-ws2016/

https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B06XDH91MF?qid=1492594902003&sr=0-2&ref_=srh_res_product_title

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2. If needed, enter your credentials to log into AWS.

3. Next, select the necessary options, such as: Region, EC2 Instance Type, VPC Settings,

Security Group and Key Pair.

4. Press “Accept Software Terms & Launch with 1-Click” and go to EC2 Management

Console.

5. Open Instances tab and wait until the VM is deployed.

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6. Next, let’s create a volume for this VM where the backups will be stored. To do this, go to

the Volumes tab and click the Create Volumes button. Fill in all the required fields and

click "Create". To see the pricing for Amazon EBS volumes, please, follow the link.

7. To add the newly created volume to the StarWind VTL VM, right-click on it and select

"Attach Volume".

https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/?nc1=h_ls

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8. Select the instance needed and click “Attach”.

9. Now, let’s make sure the newly created Volume has been attached to the VM. To do this,

open the VM Disk Management and check that the system sees the disk.

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10. Bring the disk online, initialize it and create a new simple volume.

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Configuring Virtual Tape

11. Now we can proceed with setting up the StarWind. To do this, launch the StarWind

Management Console, click on the "Add server" icon, enter the ip address "127.0.0.1"

and press "OK".

12. Left-click the server you want your backups to be stored on, then go to the

"Configuration -> Advanced Settings" tab and click "Modify".

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13. Go to the “Storage Pool” and select the drive you want to store your tapes on:

14. Let's start creating the VTL device. Click on the "Add Device (advanced)" icon, choose

Tape Device type and click "Next".

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15. Choose a device type - Virtual Tape and click “Next”.

16. Enter the VTL Name, specify the Location and click “Next”.

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17. Select the Device Model to emulate a tape drive and click "Next". SCDPM supports HP

MSL2024 and HP MSL8086 tape libraries. In this example, we will use HP MSL8086.

NOTE: ADIC is not supported by DPM.

18. Enter the Target Alias, which will be used later to connect VTL to SCDPM and click

"Next".

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19. Press the “Create” button to complete the process.

20. Right-click the created VTL and choose "Create Tape" to add the Tape to the previously

created VTL.

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21. Select the Tape Type and, if necessary, specify the desired Tape Size (you cannot set the

value higher than the maximum capacity your tape type supports). The Tape Types

recommended are LTO-5 and LTO-6. As a best practice, we would suggest creating more

tapes with smaller numbers instead of larger sizes. Once that is done, click the "Create"

button.

22. If necessary, repeat the previous step to create as many tapes as you need. In our case,

we have created one more Tape.

23. Once the tape is created, you can see the general information about it either in the

Windows Explorer or in the StarWind Management Console.

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Integrating VTL with SCDPM

24. To connect the created VTL to SCDPM, go to the VM, which has the SCDPM installed, and

launch the iSCSI Initiator. Next, press on the "Discovery" tab and click "Discover Portal

...". Enter the ip address of the StarWind VTL VM and click "OK".

NOTE: Make sure that port 3260 is enabled in the Firewall settings on both the StarWind VM and

on the SCDPM VM.

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25. Next, navigate to the "Targets" tab, select the Target we’ve created and click the

"Connect" button.

26. Click “Advanced…” button.

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27. Open the "General" tab, specify the required settings, and click "OK".

28. Now the Target status will change to "Connected".

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29. After you have completed the previous step, the Tape Library components must become

visible in Device Manager.

30. If necessary, install the driver for the VTL you have selected, in our case it's HP MSL8096.

To download the drivers, follow this link.

31. Once the drivers are installed, the VTL components should look like on the screenshot:

TECHNICAL PAPER 22




Adding VTL to SCDPM

32. Launch the Microsoft System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager. In case SCDPM

has not automatically discovered VTL, go to the "Management -> Libraries" and click

on the "Rescan" icon.

33. Now our VTL must appear in the SCDPM Administrator Console.

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34. To use the available Tapes, identify them at first. Select the required Tapes and click the

"Identify" icon.

35. Once the identification process is completed, the "Tape Label" will be changed to "Free".

TECHNICAL PAPER 24




Creating Protection Group

36. Now we have everything set up to create a Protection Group. To do this, go to the

"Protection" section and click the "New" button, then click "Next".

37. Select the clients or servers you want to protect and click "Next".

NOTE: To access the servers that you want to protect, you must have the SCDPM Agent installed

on them.

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38. Enter the Protection group name and select "Tape" type for short-term protection.

Click "Next".

39. Specify the parameters you need for Short-Term Protection, such as Retention range,

Frequency of backup and Backup mode. Also, make sure you have configured the backup

schedule (s) and click "Next".

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40. Specify the parameters necessary for Long-Term Protection and click "Next”.

41. Specify the number of allocated drives, in our case we have 4 of them since HP MSL8096

supports 4 drives. Select the necessary tape options for short-term and long-term

protection and click "Next".

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42. Next, click “Create Group” to complete the process.

.

43. Upon completion, you will see that the Protection Group is successfully created. Click

"Close".

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44. Go to the "Protection" section to see information about the created Protection Group.

45. In case you want to run a backup without waiting for the automatic execution of this

operation, right-click on the required Protection Group element and select "Create

recovery point ..." option.

46. Specify “Short term tape protection” for recovery point and click “OK”.

TECHNICAL PAPER 29




47. The backup process starts. The time it will take depends on the network bandwidth and

the speed of the disk the backup is being made to.

48. Once the process is completed, you can see in the "Monitoring" section that the backup

creation was successful.

49. You can also see information on the backup size in the StarWind Management Console.

TECHNICAL PAPER 30




Restoring data from the VTL

50. We have successfully created the backup. Now, let's see how to restore backed up data

from the VTL. To do this, go to the "Recovery" section, select the item to be restored,

right-click on it and click "Show all recovery points".

51. Select the required Recovery Point and click "Recover ...".

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52. Check the recovery information and click “Next”.

53. Select the required Recovery Type and click "Next". In our case, we will use the second

option.

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54. Specify the destination host where you want to recover the data and the destination path,

click "Next".

55. Select the required Tape Library, in our case it is "Hewlett Packard MSL G3 Series library"

and click "Next".

TECHNICAL PAPER 33




56. Next, review the summary information. If everything is correct, click the "Recover" button.

NOTE: When restoring data from a tape, DPM uses a scratch space before it delivers the data to

the selected data source. It is very important that your DPM %systemdrive% server has more than

10 GB of free disk space. DPM supports Item-Level Recovery (ILR), which allows you to perform a

specific recovery of files, folders, volumes and virtual hard disks from a host-level backup of Hyper-

V virtual machines to a network share or a volume on a DPM protected server.

However, ILR is not supported when you restore from tapes, and you can only restore an entire

VM or a single virtual hard disk.

57. The recovery from the backup begins.

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58. After the process is finished, we should see that the recovery was successful.

59. Now we can go to the Hyper-V Manager of the server we have restored data to and verify

that the VM has been restored correctly.

TECHNICAL PAPER 35




Configuring tape optimization for DPM

60. To enable multiple Protection Groups to share a backup tape, use the tape optimization

feature. To do this, go to the "Management -> Libraries" tab in the SCDPM Administrator

Console and click on the "Optimize usage" icon.

61. Next, select the required Protection Group and click "Create".

TECHNICAL PAPER 36




62. Enter a name for optimization setup, check or uncheck the box "Do not allow backups of

the different retention periods to co-locate on the same tape" and click "OK".

Configuring DPM for the short erase tape feature

63. When you need to erase the Tape, the SCDPM will by default perform a long erase and

usually the process can take a long time. To speed up this process, you can use a short

erase. The short erase runs faster, but does NOT erase data from the tape.

If you still decide to perform a short erase, open Registry Editor, go to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

\ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Microsoft Data Protection Manager \ Agent" branch and create a new

DWORD value named UseShortErase with the value 0000000. Once that is done, reboot the

server.

TECHNICAL PAPER 37




64. To erase Tape, open the SCDPM Administration Console, go to "Management ->

Libraries". Right-click on the required Tape and select "Erase tape".

65. The results of Tape erase can be seen on the screenshot below. The "Tape Label" value

should be changed to "Free".

TECHNICAL PAPER 38




Contacts

US Headquarters EMEA and APAC

1-617-449-7717

1-617-507-5845

+44 20 3769 1857 (UK)

+49 302 1788 849 (Germany)

+33 097 7197 857 (France)

+7 495 975 94 39

(Russian Federation and CIS)

1-866-790-2646

Customer Support Portal:

Support Forum:

Sales:

General Information:

https://www.starwind.com/support

https://www.starwind.com/forums

[email protected]

[email protected]

StarWind Software, Inc. 35 Village Rd., Suite 100, Middleton, MA 01949 USA www.starwind.com

©2017, StarWind Software Inc. All rights reserved.

https://www.starwind.com/support

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