SL150 - Support for Teranet/MPIO For Tape Drives On Windows 2012 Sever

Asset ID:	1-71-2113493.1
Update Date:	2017-06-07
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 2113493.1 : SL150 - Support for Teranet/MPIO For Tape Drives On Windows 2012 Sever

Applies to:

StorageTek SL150 Modular Tape Library - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

The customer has stated that they installed the HP Advanced Path Failover Driver but from what I can tell, this is only supported on HP libraries. Do we have or plan to have a similar driver available for the SL150? Or is there any plan to provide a DSM module for MPIO that would support some sort of Active/Passive Path Failover mechanism for tape drives?
The link to the HP Advanced Path Failover Driver document is located here; h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04325872.pdf and is titled "StoreEver Tape Libraries LTO-5 and LTO-6 Failover User Guide".

Goal

Is there any plan to provide a DSM module for MPIO that would support some sort of Active/Passive Path Failover mechanism for tape drives?

HP offers a fail-over driver for their tape drive when utilized with their libraries but Oracle does not.
Is there any plan to offer such a driver in the future?

Solution

Update from Software Engineering:
CommVault does not support this level of functionality. To your question about the HP library/drivers, they basically have a router in-between the library-drives and the host which would allow a redirect. This would not resolve and could potential complicate error recovery should a tape drive or library have a mechanical difficulty. This is why Oracle generally has implemented dual port capability on our libraries and drives (minus some functionality on the SL150) and allow the application of choice to manage the data, catalog, and how best within the application to address the environment. We have also found in most cases that the fiber channel connection is very reliable and the additional cost compared to the added protection in most customer cases is not a desirable ROI.

Update from Backline Tape Support:
Not aware of any "MPIO" or "Failover" support on the HP drives in the SL150.
Yes that driver that they are pointing to is a driver that we believe can only be used with a license and with the HP libraries.
Even if Oracle did have a driver that supported it, the backup application (in this case Commvault) would need to support it and control it as well and I don't believe they do.

No, not supported or planned. Not supported with the HP drivers for the SL150 library for the fail over aspect. Not a function of the SL150.

References

<NOTE:1474118.1> - SL150 - How to Generate and Retrieve a Service Bundle (Health / Error Log) From the StorageTek SL150 Modular Tape Library

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