Cheap or Free VTL Software for download

Falconstor: http://www.falconstor.com/en/pages/?pn=VTL

But whether its cheap I couldn't say.

Yes I also know Falconstor they are super Expensive. Somebody told me that there is a kind of VTL Software that is really cheap. They purchised the software while ago and they used for sometimes. They can't recall the name.

Falconstor is more than 3.000 Euros software.

Any other idea?

Regards

Most backup applications can create backup-to-disk partitions that work almost like VTLs.
How much data do you have to back up?  An inexpensive D2D backup system might be a lot more effective than a software solution.

Ye we already have backup exec and we are backing up to disk (backup to disk folder)

We are using 1GBps connection and actually all our lan is at the same speed.

The issue is that backup to disk folder doesn't actually emulate the tape library and speed isn't great.

We are ready to use FC HBA we had this hardware on stock and never implemented.

So physically we have everything HBA Card we also have a SAN but we do not have the VTL implemented.

I forgot we need to backup about  1,5 Terrabyte of Data

Before you say that the disk target is the performance bottleneck, check the read speed of the source; it's often true that even "fast" servers -- because of fragmentation, small files, long file names, and deeply nested subdirectories -- only get 10MB/sec read speed.  In this case, putting in a faster target may not improve the speed, because the bottleneck is the source.  

Where a VTL or D2D appliance can help is in creating many more target devices, so that you can do a lot of backups at one time, and so your aggregate performance is better.  You can also use deduplication to store more weeks of backups on the device, although there is a bit of a performance tradeoff.

I'm not aware of any public-domain software-only VTL products.  If you're looking at a hardware solution, the HP D2D2504i is a simple iSCSI connect (no Fibre Channel needed) with 3TB usable space, and can create six backup target devices.  The 4004i is similarly 3TB usable, with expansion to 7.5TB.  Either of those is probably all you need.  Both can do direct offload to tape without going back over the network.   http://www.hp.com/go/d2d

Please note that I do work for HP.

I am not looking for hardware solution.

Never mind we will see how we can solve this.

Try this one:

http://linuxvtl.googlepages.com/

Obviously it requires a linux machine (quite common in good environments)


PS. Very easy to setup :)

Great on Linux Machine is even better :) You made my day happy

That's good

Very happy to find people interested in Linux, as now I'm working entirely in Linux-Unix environments and found no better OS for Administration.

As for your question, you can easy adapt the iSCSI initiator in the Kernel to emulate SAN disks and operate backups from everywhere with the iSCSI protocol.
For the VTL, this package is quite effective and robust, obviously it will allow you to fully establish a very complex SAN infrastructure with little efforts.

Martino

Great I am since 6 months on Linux side especially since I work for a Company like Datadomain, we are de-duplication storage company.

I also run my small own company is more an hobby to be honest we sells some hardware staff. I need to understand how vtl works. Datadoamin has a great software the makes storage solutions as complete as possible

I just want to ask you one more question than I can even give you the points

We have Linux environment, we have the Fedora 7, the backup software that we use is Backup Exec from Symantec. We need to install the backup software to the Linux machine as well.

Honestly I do not have any idea how VTL software works.

Look, VTL software emulates tape drives and allocates the necessary resources on the host system.
You will se the Virtual Tapes as standard Tape Devices and once you write to them, the module automatically allocates the data in files (as you mount the drives with vtlcmd).

This means:
You can turn any attached disk into a VTL, and obviously if using a high end server turn it into a fully fledged VTL (just for the cost of the hardware).

The VTL kernel module is still under heavy development and it lacks on documentation, but is fair straight forward to enable it following the instructions on the webpage previously mentioned.

So the backup software that is installed on the Windows machine will see the Linux machine tape library?

Backup exec support robotic library but can be installed only on windows, but we also have netbackup that can be installed on Linux.

Now... what I mean is the tapes library to be seen from the backup software application, the backup software need to be installed on the local machine That has the tape library, or can be installed on a remote backup server

Many Thanks