Storage Gateway VTL Mode

Question

I am new to AWS.  To get my feet wet, I started with the Storage Gateway in VTL Mode.  I want to start creating long term backups in AWS Deep Archive Storage (This is data we will only need in case of a disaster).  We have several Windows Servers with Veeam B&R Enterprise.    
  
I want to know If I can use the same Storage Gateway VTL on multiple Backup Servers?    
  
If so, being that the Storage Gateway VTL has 10 drives, is it possible to connect several Backup Servers to the same Storage Gateway VTL and explicitly assign specific tape drives to each backup server?  
  
If so, can each Backup Server run tape jobs simultaneously?  
  
Any advice is appreciated.

Accepted Answer

Hi,  
  
Thank you for considering Storage Gateway in VTL mode. You can connect multiple backup servers to the same Tape Gateway, however, there are a couple caveats you need to consider. I have mentioned them below.  
  
1) When you create and activate a Tape Gateway, you will specify the type of medium changer which are specific to backup apps. As long as all the backup apps you use to connect to the gateway use one type of medium changer, you will be fine. We have documented a list of backup apps and their associated medium changers here.  
  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/latest/userguide/resource_vtl-devices.html#change-mediumchanger-vtl  
  
2) From the Tape Gateway, you will see ten tape drives and associated tapes in the backup application. To avoid write conflicts from multiple backup apps going to the same tape, we ask that you use a single tape with single backup application only. You can run backup jobs simultaneously from different backup applications as long as each backup application uses its own dedicated tapes for the backup jobs.  
  
Hope this helps answer your questions.  
  
Regards,  
Bhavin

Answer

Bhavin,  
  
Is there a charge for each Storage Gateway VTL?

Answer

Bhavin,  
  
Thanks for your response.  That is very helpful.  
  
All of my Backup servers are using the same version of Veeam Backup & Replication so they are using the same meduim changer.  
  
I will create different media pools that have different tapes for each VB&R server in order to mitigate the write conflict issue you identified.  
  
Thanks for your help.

Answer

Hi,  
  
There's a per gateway pricing (based on data written to AWS by your gateway) which is a max of $125/gateway/month. Besides this, there is storage and data transfer out charges. You can create as many virtual tapes you like but are charged only based on how much data you are storing on those tapes.  
  
I have included links to pricing and cost calculator pages. The cost calculator will especially be helpful if you are trying to determine your monthly costs for using Tape Gateway.   
  
Pricing - https://aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/pricing/  
Cost calculator - https://calculator.aws/#/  
  
Regards,  
Bhavin  
  
Edited by: BhavinAtAWS on Oct 28, 2019 12:15 PM

Storage Gateway VTL Mode

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