![starwind vtl starwind vtl](https://cdn1.vogel.de/5c0jQv3-gs4LtO25VlH50ftGyVg=/images.vogel.de/vogelonline/bdb/1705300/1705345/original.jpg)
![starwind vtl starwind vtl](https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/word-image-410.png)
That’s really it as far as the StarWind setup is concerned. We can also see that we have options surrounding when to purge the local on-site tape data as well as how long to wait after the virtual tape has been ejected locally before we start the replication to S3. This tiering feature allows us to keep costs down by essentially staging and de-staging our backup data depending on age to a lower tier, lower performance storage while keeping our most recent restore points on a more reliable, higher performance cloud storage service.
#Starwind vtl archive
As shown below we can see a few options as it pertains to our retention – the most interesting being the ability to migrate our tape data out of S3 and into the cheaper, more archive suitable Glacier service after a certain period of time. To set this up we simply need to click on the ‘Cloud Replication’ option (shown right) within the StarWind management console and provide our access and region information for our S3 bucket.Ībove I hinted at yet another feature of the StarWind Cloud VTL with the mention of Glacier. This scenario allows for the actual Veeam tape job to complete much faster as it’s simply streaming to local disk- after which, the data is replicated to Amazon. StarWind Cloud VTL implements what they call a Disk to Disk to Cloud process – meaning data is first copied to disk (StarWind) from disk (Production) and then further replicated to Cloud (Amazon S3/Glacier). So by now you might be thinking “Hey, these tapes are mapped to disk not cloud” and you are absolutely correct in that thought. Once installed we are left essentially with an iSCSI target that points to our VTL, which in tern maps to local disk.
#Starwind vtl drivers
As we can see, StarWind actually mimics the HPE MSL8096 Tape Library – therefore we may need to pull down any appropriate device drivers in order to support it.
![starwind vtl starwind vtl](https://www.vladan.fr/wp-content/uploads/images/StarWind-GUI.jpg)
Once installed, the configuration (as shown below) is really just adding our virtual tape device (drive) and however many number of virtual tapes we want. If you have ever installed any other StarWind products then the Cloud VTL setup will look very similar, utilizing a very easy to use wizard type installation. In fact, for convenience and cost reasons StarWind Cloud VTL can even be installed directly along side with your Veeam Backup and Replication Backup server.
#Starwind vtl software
The StarWind Cloud VTL for AWS and Veeam is 100% software based – therefore no extra hardware or appliances are need to be racked and stacked in your datacenter at all. The software, called StarWind Cloud VTL for AWS and Veeam couldn’t come at a more opportune time as only a week before the announcement “WannaCry” was worming its way through Europe, encrypting both production and backup data – leaving those companies without some sort of offsite air-gapped backup without a whole lot of option. But just this past month at VeeamON StarWind announced yet another version of their VTL, only this time, instead of just writing the data to local disk they now have the option additionally sync those virtual tapes to the cloud. The StarWind VTL is nothing new – in fact its’ been around since 2009.
![starwind vtl starwind vtl](https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Plugin-1-73-940x528.png)
#Starwind vtl manual
The StarWind VTL mimics that of a physical tape library, however instead of requiring the manual intervention of removing and loading tapes it simply writes the data to disk. That’s why companies like StarWind initially built what is called the Virtual Tape Library (VTL). When its time to restore we are then left with the frustration of finding the proper tapes and then the slow performance of moving data off of that tape back into production. Tape has had a play in data protection for a long time but the mundane tasks of removing a tape and inserting another just doesn’t fit well inside of our modern datacenters. Now, when looking at taking this rule and applying it to our data protection design the subject of tape is usually discussed as it facilitates that second type of media we need to satisfy the “2” portion. That’s 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types/sets, with one being located offsite. In its essence, the 3-2-1 rule is designed as a process to ensure that you always have data availability should you need it. When companies are approaching a data protection strategy something dubbed the “3-2-1 rule” often comes up in conversation.