I'm using Backup Exec 2010 R3 running on Windows Server 2008 R2 to manage a tape library with four tape drives. I have the library expansion and NDMP options. There are two servers A & B requiring backup (actually Netapp Filers controlled via NDMP). The tape drives are each individually connected to the servers by fiber channel, and the tape library is controlled via the fiber channel connected to tape drive 1.
If I associate all four drives with server/Filer A then everything works as expected. Backup Exec discovers the four drives and the library as being connected to server, and treats all four drives as belonging to the library. I can backup to any/all of the drives and Backup Exec manages the library to ensure that tapes are loaded as needed into each drive.
However backup from server B using this approach is a lot slower than backup from server A as the data from B has to cross the network between the two servers to get to the tape drives. So what I'd like to do is have drives 1 & 2 connected to server A and drives 3 & 4 connected to server B. Unfortunately when I do this and re-discover the drives Backup Exec correctly associates drives 3 & 4 with server B but as it can only see the tape library via drive 1 on server A it treats drives 3 & 4 as orphans with no library. Any attempt to backup to drive 3 or 4 then results in Backup Exec prompting for tapes to be loaded manually.
So, is there any way of configuring Backup Exec to associate a tape drive on server B with a tape library which it manages via server A?
