Tape Library Sharing

The Tape and Library Sharing feature is not a new feature within the System Center 2012 R2 release, the TLS feature has been around for a couple of DPM versions.

The TLS function is enabled when you designate a DPM server as the Library Server. The Library Server will control and manage the shared tape library and coordinate the DPM server that shares the library called Library Clients. For the DPM administrator to be able to start using the TLS feature the tape library must be presented using a fiber channel technology.

There are some prerequisites that you must consider before you start configuring the TLS feature:

• Use only fiber channel as the primary communication media.
• The physical tape library must be presented to all DPM server that should use it. 
• For the server that should be Library Server the media changer / Tape Library AND the tape drives should be enabled in the device manager.
• For the servers that should be Library Clients the media changer / Tape Library MUST be disabled in the device manager of the servers. The tape drives MUST be enabled in device manager.
• Configure SQL Named Pipes Protocol on all SQL servers (will be covered in the blog post).
• A service account for the TLS feature. In this blog post I will call the service account DPMTLS.

The following part in this blog post will cover how you configure the TLS feature so the DPM servers could share the tape library.

On all DPM Servers that will use TLS verify that the Medium Changer devices and Tape drives are present.

 

On the DPM server that will be library server (SRV1) the Media Changer devices and Tape drives should be enabled.

On the DPM servers that will be library client computers (SRV2) the Media Changer device should be disabled, keep the Tape drives enabled since the library client computers will need access to the tape drives.

 

 

Next step is to enable named pipes protocol for the SQL servers hosting the DPMDB for both client and library servers. Open your SQL Server Configuration Manager and expand the SQL Server Network Configuration and click on Protocols for MSDPM2012. Verify that Named Pipes are enabled on the right side of the MMC. If not enable Named Pipes by right-clicking and choose Enable. You need to restart the SQL server (MSDPM2012) service, it will also restart the SQL Agent (MSDPM2012) and DPM services.

 

Next step is to go to all your Client Library Computers and open an elevated command prompt. Open the following catalogue “C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Setup>” and execute the following command

AddLibraryServerForDpm.exe –DpmServerWithLibrary SRV1.contoto.local

You must always provide an FQDN for the DPM server name.

 

It is very important that you run this executable on all your client library computers. After you have executed the command on all your client library computers go the DPM server that will be the library server computer.

Open an elevated command prompt and go to the catalogue “C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Setup>” and execute the following command:

AddLibraryServerForDpm.exe – ShareLibraryWithDpm SRV2.contoso.local

 

 

Create a service account called DPMTLS that you make a member of the local administrator group of all your client library computers and the library server. When the DPMTLS account is a member of the local administrator group on all our involved DPM servers you configure the two SQL services:

• SQL Server (MSDPM2012)
• SQL Server Agent (MSDPM2012)

By default the two services are configured to use local accounts, you should change this for both services so they use the DPMTLS account.

 

 

 

 

This apply to both library server and client library computers.

 

When that is done you open an elevated command prompt on every client library computer and open the catalogue C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Setup and run the executable SetSharedDpmDatabase.exe with the following syntax:

SetSharedDpmDatabase -DatabaseName <SqlServer\Instance\DatabaseName> [-DoNotMoveData]

To find out the path for the SqlServer\Instance\DatabaseName go to the library server and open the DPM console. Click on the About DPM information button and you will see the path.

 



 

Go back now to the elevated command prompt on your client computers and type the following syntax:

SetSharedDpmDatabase –DatabaseName SRV1\MSDPM2012\DPMDB

 

 

Keep in mind that it will take some time for the TLS configuration is finished. You may see the SQL Server configuration Successful message for a long time before the Client SQL and Client DPM messages appears. DON’T CLOSE THE COMMAND PROMPT BEFORE THOSE THREE MESSAGES HAS BEEN PROMPTED

 

Go now to your Library Server and perform a Rescan and Refresh of your tape library. Go to Management in the console and click on Libraries. Right click on the library and choose first Rescan, wait for the process to finish. Right click again and choose Refresh. Repeat this on all your client library computers.