Testing Your Setup by Using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager - Amazon Storage Gateway
Configuring DPM to Recognize VTL DevicesImporting a Tape into DPMWriting Data to a Tape in DPMArchiving a Tape by Using DPMRestoring Data from a Tape Archived in DPM
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Amazon S3 File Gateway documentation has been moved to What is Amazon S3 File Gateway?

Amazon FSx File Gateway documentation has been moved to What is Amazon FSx File Gateway?

Volume Gateway documentation has been moved to What is Volume Gateway?

Testing Your Setup by Using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager

You can back up your data to virtual tapes, archive the tapes, and manage your virtual tape library (VTL) devices by using Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 or 2016 Data Protection Manager (DPM). In this topic, you can find basic documentation on how to configure the DPM backup application for a Tape Gateway and perform a backup and restore operation.

For detailed information about how to use DPM, see the DPM documentation on the Microsoft System Center website. For more information about compatible backup applications, see Supported third-party backup applications for a Tape Gateway.

Configuring DPM to Recognize VTL Devices

After you have connected the virtual tape library (VTL) devices to the Windows client, you configure DPM to recognize your devices. For information about how to connect VTL devices to the Windows client, see Connecting Your VTL Devices.

By default, the DPM server does not recognize Tape Gateway devices. To configure the server to work with the Tape Gateway devices, you perform the following tasks:

  1. Update the device drivers for the VTL devices to expose them to the DPM server.

  2. Manually map the VTL devices to the DPM tape library.

To update the VTL device drivers

You use the DPMDriveMappingTool to map your tape drives to the DPM tape library.

To map tape drives to the DPM server tape library

  1. Create at least one tape for your gateway. For information on how to do this on the console, see Creating Tapes.

  2. Import the tape into the DPM library. For information on how to do this, see Importing a Tape into DPM.

  3. If the DPMLA service is running, stop it by opening a command terminal and typing the following on the command line.

    net stop DPMLA

  4. Locate the following file on the DPM server: %ProgramFiles%\System Center 2016 R2\DPM\DPM\Config\DPMLA.xml.

    Note

    If this file exists, the DPMDriveMappingTool overwrites it. If you want to preserve your original file, create a backup copy.

  5. Open a command terminal, change the directory to %ProgramFiles%\System Center 2016 R2\DPM\DPM\Bin, and run the following command.

    
                        
C:\Microsoft System Center 2016 R2\DPM\DPM\bin>DPMDriveMappingTool.exe

    The output for the command looks like the following.

                           
Performing Device Inventory ...
Mapping Drives to Library ...
Adding Standalone Drives ...
Writing the Map File ...
Drive Mapping Completed Successfully.

Importing a Tape into DPM

You are now ready to import tapes from your Tape Gateway into the DPM backup application library.

To import tapes into the DPM backup application library

  1. On the DPM server, open the Management Console, choose Rescan, and then choose Refresh. Doing this displays your medium changer and tape drives.

    DPM management console screen showing tape drives after clicking rescan and refresh.

  2. Open the context (right-click) menu for the media changer in the Library section, and then choose Add tape (I/E port) to add a tape to the Slots list.

    Note

    The process of adding tapes can take several minutes to complete.

    The tape label appears as Unknown, and the tape is not usable. For the tape to be usable, you must identify it.

  3. Open the context (right-click) menu for the tape you want to identify, and then choose Identify unknown tape.

    Note

    The process of identifying tapes can take a few seconds or a few minutes.

    If the tapes don’t display barcodes correctly, you need to change the media changer driver to Sun/StorageTek Library. For more information, see Displaying Barcodes for Tapes in Microsoft System Center DPM.

    When identification is complete, the tape label changes to Free. That is, the tape is free for data to be written to it.

    In the following screenshot, the tape in slot 2 has been identified and is free to use but the tape in slot 3 is not.

    DPM management console screen with tapes labeled free and unknown.

Writing Data to a Tape in DPM

You write data to a Tape Gateway virtual tape by using the same protection procedures and policies you do with physical tapes. You create a protection group and add the data you want to back up, and then back up the data by creating a recovery point. For detailed information about how to use DPM, see the DPM documentation on the Microsoft System Center website.

By default, the capacity of a tape is 30GB. When you backup data that is larger than a tape's capacity, a device I/O error occurs. If the position where the error occurred is larger than the size of the tape, Microsoft DPM treats the error as an indication of end of tape. If the position where the error occurred is less than the size of the tape, the backup job fails. To resolve the issue, change the TapeSize value in the registry entry to match the size of your tape. For information about how to do this, see Error ID: 30101 at the Microsoft System Center.

Note

If your Tape Gateway restarts for any reason during an ongoing backup job, the backup job will fail. To complete the failed backup job, you must resubmit it.

Archiving a Tape by Using DPM

When you archive a tape, Tape Gateway moves the tape from the DPM tape library to offline storage. You begin tape archival by removing the tape from the slot using your backup application—that is, DPM.

To archive a tape in DPM

  1. Open the context (right-click) menu for the tape you want to archive, and then choose Remove tape (I/E port).

    DPM management console screen showing the context menu for a selected tape.

  2. In the dialog box that appears, choose Yes. Doing this ejects the tape from the medium changer's storage slot and moves the tape into one of the gateway's I/E slots. When a tape is moved into the gateway's I/E slot, it is immediately sent for archiving.

  3. On the Storage Gateway console, choose your gateway, and then choose VTL Tape Cartridges and verify the status of the virtual tape you are archiving.

    The archiving process can take some time to complete. The initial status of the tape is shown as IN TRANSIT TO VTS. When archiving starts, the status changes to ARCHIVING. When archiving is completed, the tape is no longer listed in the VTL.

Restoring Data from a Tape Archived in DPM

Restoring your archived data is a two-step process.

To restore data from an archived tape

  1. Retrieve the archived tape from archive to a Tape Gateway. For instructions, see Retrieving Archived Tapes.

  2. Use the DPM backup application to restore the data. You do this by creating a recovery point, as you do when restoring data from physical tapes. For instructions, see Recovering Client Computer Data on the DPM website.

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