Qstar Tape Library
Yvone Samiento
But traditional tape storage has some disadvantages including slower data recovery times since tape stored online must be loaded into a tape drive or off-site media must be fetched and loaded into the library before data can be accessed. The tape media must then be searched sequentially to find the file you need.
LTO Tape library software creates an archive file gateway that helps alleviate many of these problems. Creating multiple copies as one operation and making it possible to access, manage, and share tape storage as easy as using network-attached storage (NAS).
LTO is a super cheap magnetic tape that allows enterprises to store large amounts of data. Designed for up to 30 years of archival storage, total cost of ownership (TCO) can vary between 50% and 300% lower than comparable disk-based archiving systems.
With the current generation, LTO-9, storing up to 45 TB compressed, adoption of LTO tape storage is increasing in industries such as healthcare, high-performance computing, entertainment, and media, where large high-capacity storage media is needed to store and secure industry specific files for long periods of time.
Linear Tape File System (LTFS), a file system format that standardizes file operations on tape media, allows you to transfer recorded media between any operating system, platform, or application that meets the standard.
LTFS divides tape into two partitions; one for file information like name and size (metadata) and one for data storage. When the LTFS tape is mounted, the partition with the metadata is read, making the tape contents available. With LTFS, you can perform standard file operations to access, manage and share files, on tape media using a Windows Explorer-type interface.
At QStar, we have been around since the inception of LTO (and before) understanding the ins and outs of removable tape storage. Let us help you implement an archive storage solution for your enterprise using LTO and LTFS technology and optionally the cloud. QStar Tape Library software (Archive Manager) can integrate tape and cloud storage to create a super secure, and easily accessible long-term archive solution.
The technology is a multi-node gateway solution that supports the massive archive needs of high performance computing (HPC), AI/ML, hyperscalers, media and entertainment, and video surveillance environments. It creates a multi-node Windows or Linux-based archive using Global Namespaces for SMB shares, NFS mounts or S3 buckets.
Every node can access any tape media and use any tape drive to read or write data. Global ArchiveSpace can replicate content for data protection to same or different archive technologies, and present a unified view of the archived data through SMB or NFS file systems and/or S3 cloud interfaces.
ArchiveSpace is an extension of QStar Archive Manager, which is one solution already offered by the likes of Cohesity, Rubrik, HYCU and Hammerspace, to help serve the cloud data management needs of their end customers.
It can be used with the IBM TS4500, Oracle SL8500, Quantum Scalar i6000 and Spectra Logic TFinity Exascale platforms, supporting hundreds of tape drives and an unlimited media count, allowing hundreds of Petabytes or Exabytes.
A multi-write option groups tape drives together for higher performance by allowing a single stream to be written to multiple tape drives based on policies. In addition, mirroring and replication options protect content by automatically creating copies of data within the library, to another tape library, or to private/public clouds. As tape libraries under management do not need to be partitioned, administration complexity is reduced.
Hammerspace added archival tape system support to its Global Data Environment (GDE) earlier this year []. Its parallel file system covers data in globally distributed and disparate sites, and enables it to be located, orchestrated, and accessed as if it were local.
QStar Technologies was founded in 1987, and has main offices in Denver, Colorado and Milan, Italy. Its customers include the University of Cambridge, Raytheon, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Turner, Fox, Walmart, and Deutsche Bank.
With the advent of public and private clouds, archiving data for long term retention, compliance purposes and auditing has become lot easier and cost effective. The Cohesity DataPlatform has a tight integration with all the major public and private clouds. You can find more details about it here. Still, some customers prefer tape for long term archiving, either to comply with their existing business processes, regulatory requirements, or to take advantage of their existing tape infrastructure. With our latest tape integration, customers now have the option to archive data to public clouds, private clouds or tape.
Archiving data to tape libraries can be challenging because there are many different tape libraries from multiple vendors, that support different formats. Media management is entirely a different ball game. Instead of getting into managing the tape libraries and dealing with different formats, we partnered with QStar. QStar supports wide variety of tape libraries and formats. This allows us to support most existing tape environments effectively. Once QStar is set up and configured as an external target on Cohesity, archiving data to tapes is a simple two step process (1) defining a policy (2) applying the policy to a protection job.
To archive data on our platform to tapes, you need to first install QStar Archive Manager software on a physical Windows host, which is connected to the tape library. Then you need to register the library with the QStar Archive Manager and create an Integral Volume. An Integral Volume is a set of media (tapes) with a cache, and it can be mounted as an NFS or a CIFS share.
After the QStar external target is created, to archive data to tapes, you need to create a policy that specifies the archival schedule and apply the policy to a protection job. The policy that was applied to the following job specifies archive the first snapshot taken each month to the QStar Integral Volume.
QStar has been around since 1987, and focuses on archiving and tape products that include QStar Archive Manager, Tape as NAS (in SMB/NFS file format on tape), Tape as Cloud (S3 object storage on tape), and Cloud gateway (on-site and cloud storage access as if it were a cloud).
From these gateways, QStar provides access to a single namespace made up of tape storage that runs to potentially exabytes in capacity. At the same time as data is ingested to Global ArchiveSpace, it can be replicated to another tape library, any of the three hyperscaler clouds or private S3 storage.
In performance terms, an LTO-9 tape cartridge holds 45TB of data when compressed, with throughput of 400MBps native or 1,000MBps with 2.5:1 compression. Areal density is about 100 times greater for tape than HDD.
Scalar i6 offers a unique solution to address massive data growth challenges. Start with a single, 6U system and grow to fill an entire 48U rack with a single, integrated library that can store up to 36 petabytes of data. Pay for the expanded capacity only when you need it with Capacity-on-Demand (CoD) licensing. The result is a system that enables you to manage massive data growth and long-term storage requirements efficiently and protect it from cyber threats.
Intelligent diagnostics monitor systems and issue proactive alerts. A full suite of data security features ensures your data is protected and secure, and automated Extended Data Life Management (EDLM) ensures that your files are readable and safe, no matter how long you retain them.
Intelligent features available in Scalar i6 ensure that data stored for long-term retention remains both secure and preserved in a readable state, and it cannot be stolen or viewed by unauthorized parties. Even if individual tapes or the entire library are stolen, data encryption AES-256 ensures that the information is safe. Robust data security thwarts data breaches, blackmail, and the associated regulatory compliance complications that come with them.
The Qualstar Q80 Enterprise tape library is designed for simplicity and reliability, providing superior performance and scalability for expanding data storage and long-term archiving requirements. The Q80 system offers capacity scaling from 80 to 560 cartridge slots and throughput scaling from 1 to 42 tape drives. The Q80 utilizes LTO-7, LTO-8, or LTO-9 tape drives, with each 6U high Q80 library module capable of delivering up to 1.44 PB (LTO-9 native) of storage capacity or up to 3.6 PB (LTO-9 compressed). The Q80 base unit may be connected to up to six additional expansion modules, creating a single library system that can store up to 25.2 PB (compressed) in a single 42U rack. The Q80 uses a single robot to service all drives and media, maximizing cost effectiveness.
The Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is a file system that allows files stored on magnetic tape to be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk or removable flash drives. It requires both a specific format of data on the tape media and software to provide a file system interface to the data. The technology, based around a self-describing tape format developed by IBM, was adopted by the LTO Consortium in 2010.
Magnetic tape data storage has been used for over 50 years, but typically did not hold file metadata in a form easy to access or modify independent of the file content data. Often external databases were used to maintain file metadata (file names, timestamps, directory hierarchy) to hold this data but these external databases were generally not designed for interoperability and tapes might or might not contain an index of their content. In Unix-like systems, there is the tar interoperable standard, but this is not well-suited to allow modification of file metadata independent of modifying file content data - and does not maintain a central index of files nor provide a filesystem interface or characteristics.
LTFS technology was first implemented by IBM as a prototype running on Linux and Mac OS X during 2008/2009. This prototype was demonstrated at NAB 2009. Based on feedback from this initial demonstration and experience within IBM the filesystem was overhauled in preparation for release as a product. The LTFS development team worked with the vendors of LTO tape products (HP and Quantum) to build support and understanding of the LTFS format and filesystem implementation leading up to the public release.
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