VM as a media agent

[a2jam]

I was forced to virtualize one of my file servers, which i also used as a media agent. once i finished with the virtualization process (ESX 3.5), i noticed the new VM does not see the tape drives. So, it is possible to use VMs as a media agent. If so, how do i get to the VMs to see the tape drives.

I have zones the Library and the ESX host together but i am not even sure the host sees the drives.

Thanks

 

[bigg22]

I don't believe SAN attached libraries are supported for VMs.

 

[rodneysmith]

I usually dont recomment media agents as VMs as when it comes to DR it becomes alot more fun to get it going if you lose the ESX host and then need to recover image from the backup tape for the Media agent but you need to build the MA to recover the tape backup unless you use Media Explorer ( unless you have a physical MA somewhere too)... well you get the picture.

but to answer you question
Fibre is not supported but you can look at iSCSI or SCSI attached.
To make a SCSI tape drive available in a virtual machine, you must allocate the SCSI controller to which it is attached for use only by virtual machines

iSCSI you just need to load the Driver (and the target has to support it)

Fibre they say will be added later

hope that helps
rgds rod