Chapter 2 — Architecture Overview High-Availability Configurations
December 2019 User Guide—Spectra T200, T380, and T680 Libraries
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Drive Connectivity Failover
The Fibre Channel drives used with the library are equipped with two
Fibre Channel ports. The two Fibre Channel ports cannot be used
simultaneously to provide redundant data paths between the hosts and the
drive. However, they can be used to provide failover capability in the event
that communication to the port currently in use is interrupted. This
failover can be accomplished several ways, including:
Manually disconnect the fiber optic cable from the failed port and
connect it to the other port. You may need to reconfigure your host
software to recognize the alternate port.
Connect each port on the drive to a separate Fibre Channel HBA in the
host. You can also use a dual-port Fibre Channel HBA. Configure one
HBA (or HBA port) as the primary connection and the other HBA (or
HBA port) as the failover connection. Install failover software on the
host computer to control the transfer of I/O from one HBA to the other
in case of a failure. You may also need to configure your storage
management software to correctly recognize both ports. Refer to your
failover software, HBA, and storage management software
documentation for instructions.
Note: Tape drives sold by Spectra Logic do not support MPIO.
Global Spare Drives
The BlueScale Global Spare feature provides a way to remotely substitute
an available TS11xx technology or Fibre Channel LTO-4 or later generation
drive in the library for a failed drive of the same type. The feature lets you
configure an installed drive as a designated spare for other drives in the
library. This drive can then be substituted for a failed drive in any partition
that is configured to use the Global Spare drive. When a drive fails, you
simply log into the BlueScale web interface from any location, select the
Global Spare option for the failed drive, and continue normal operations.
You can then physically replace the failed drive at your convenience. See
Assign Global Spare Drives on page 193 and Using a Global Spare Drive on
page 402 for more information.
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