After completing the last HomeLab / HomeDC Change: Stage XVIII: VSAN and VVOLs it was time to review my Backup and Desaster Recovery Methods.
I used VMware vDP for Desaster Recovery, I had no active Backup strategy….
But I wanted more than a Desaster Recovery Solution. I wanted to be able to offload my Backups to a third location…..
I searched for a cheap LTO Tape solution. I found a HP LTO2 Tape Drive….
It is a HP LTO2 19″ Rack solution.
I used a LSI SAS Controller to operate with the tape drive.
It is connected via an external SAS cable.
I configured the SAS Controller for PCI Pass Through into a Windows 2012 VM.
I installed Symantec Backup Exec 15 inside that Windows VM and the Tape Drive was recognized correctly.
I deployed the Symantec Backup Exec Agents onto my Windows VMs and configured a Backup Job to use the Tape Drive.
It works very well, but you know, I wanted more flexibility…….
I found a cheap LTO4 Autoloader at eBay and changed it with my LTO2 Tape Drive. It has the same SAS connection.
Now I have 8 LTO4 tapes within my Autoloader…..
I also configured a 900GB Disk Pool within Backup Exec to make backups faster. These Backup Disk Pool is stored on a SanDisk FusionIO 1,2TB ioDrive 2 card. Performance and reliability is the key…..
I have already implemented several other HomeLab enhancements, I only need to document them here……
Check out my newest story: Stage XX: VMware VSAN All Flash