- Sun Storage Virtual Tape Library VTL User Guide

Features
96267 • G Chapter 1 Introduction: VTL appliances and enterprise data-protection 3
TheShredfeatureinsuresmilitarystandard,securedatadestructionby
overwritingvirtualtapewithrandombitpatterns.Datadestructionjobsare
queuedsothattheshredprocessdoesnothaveanexcessiveimpactupon
performance.
■ Datacompression
SunVTLPlus2.0supportsbothsoftware‐basedandhardware‐baseddata
compression.
Bothdata‐compressiontechnologiesoffersimilarfunctionality.Botharebasedon
theLZOalgorithm.Whennecessary,eithercanincreasetheamountofdatathat
willfitonavirtualtapeofagivencapacity.Compressionratios
canapproach2:1
fordatasetsmadeupofhighlycompressib lefiletypes,suchasplaintextand
uncompressedbitmappedimages(incompressiblefiletypes,suchasZIParchi ves,
GIFimages,andJPGim ag es reducetheatta ina ble compressionproportionately).
However,theoptionalVTLPlus2.0compressionhardwareofferssignificantly
higherthroughputperformance
comparedwiththesoftware‐onlyapproach.
SpecializedASICs(application‐specificin tegr ated circuits)ontheoptional
compressioncardsperformthecalculationsthatsoftware‐onlysol utionsmust
performonthesys temCP U.
■ SupportforSunStorageTekACSLSandLibraryStationlibrary‐management
software
ACSLSandLibraryStationsupportmakesahighdegreeofintegrationp oss ib le
betweenVTLsolutionsandcomplexenterprisestorageenvironmentsthatinclude
largelibrarieswithmultiplepartitionsandmixedopensystemsandmainframe
systems.SunVTL virtuallibrariescancache
orcopytapevolumestostorage
poolsonshared,ACS LS‐managedlibraries.Al terna tively,ACSLSca n be
configuredtomanagevirtuallibraries.
■ Emailnotifications
TheVTLemailalertsfeaturemonitorsanextensiblesetofpre‐definedcritical
systemfunctionsandautomaticallynotifiesalocalsys temadministratorbyemail.
You ca n extendor modifytheCallHomemoni toring scriptstocustomi z e
monitoringforyourneeds.
■ X‐raydiagnostics
TheX‐ray featurecombinessnapshotsofthe currentstateoftheappliance,its
configuration,anditsenvir onmentwithsystemeventlogsandsavestheresultin
astandard,tape‐archive(tar)format.
KeyVTLfeaturesarediscussedinmoredetaillaterinthischapter.