Integration options

My company has recently installed a SAN system. Currently two systems are on the network with plans of phasing in the rest of the eight workstations over time. We have an autoloader tape backup unit attached to our server that handles daily backup of the non-SAN workstations over Ethernet.

I am interested to know what the options are in integrating our SCSI based backup system into the SAN when all work systems are connected to the SAN.

All workstations and server are Macs.

Thanks.

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

I would need to know which version of MAC OS you are using. My best answer would be to contact your backup software vendor on their support requirements for SAN based backup using MAC OS. On the hardware side, the matter is trivial. Just purchase a "data router" (which is actually a Fibre to SCSI bridge) and connect the tape library via the bridge to the SAN. All SAN connected servers should be able to now share the tape library. You must use a fabric switch though, as Hubs are not supported when connecting to disk AND tape over the same loop.

Chris

Editor's note: Do you agree with this expert's response? If you have more to share, post it in one of our .bphAaR2qhqA^0@/searchstorage>discussion forums.

This was first published in April 2002