Dell Powervault 122T for 2 computers

It's gonna take 2 PV122T's.

You can't share SCSI devices between 2 servers (except for SCSI shared harddrives in a cluster setup, but that's a different story).

So, I cannot use it for 2 computers. Do you know what kind for 2 computers? Thanks.

---

@goodman2001 wrote:
So, I cannot use it for 2 computers. Do you know what kind for 2 computers? Thanks.

---

What do you mean?

Are you looking for a solution that can be connected to 2 servers? If so, you're looking at a fibre channel solution.

This requires:
- a fibre channel card in each server
- a fibre channel switch
- a fibre channel capable tape library
- at least 3 fibre channel cables
- a backup application that supports a shared storage option (extra license usually per server)

This will probably exceed the cost of buying a 2nd PV122T (Dell doesn't seem to sell this anymore, so the price would be what you can find it for on Ebay or so).

Depending what exactly your after, a 114T (although outdated) holds 2 drives, and can connect to two hosts.

snapohead is correct. I forgot about that unit. With that setup, each server would get a single tape drive and it's not a changer, so you'd have to manually swap the tapes out, unlike the PV122T's ability to change tapes (automatically or in backup software).

Thanks a lot for the info. I think i will try it.

QUESTION

 

Based on the scenario above, since there are 2 scsi connections at the back of the PV 122T, cant he connect one PE2650 to say the upper connector and the other PE2650 to say the lower connector where the terminator is usually attached? Will that work? Giving that he has 2 connections coming to one PV 122T. Just a thought.

 

Thanks

No. SCSI devices cannot be shared between 2 servers via SCSI. The 2nd connector theoretically is for daisy chaining multiple SCSI devices off of the 1 SCSI controller, but I wouldn't recommend that with a tape drive.

Only a limited number of SCSI (raid) controllers support 2 controllers on a single SCSI chain (e.g. PERC3DC in cluster mode connected to a PV220S with another PERC3DC in another server connected to the other side of the PV220S). These controllers tend to not support tape drives at the same time though.

Thanks