Visara VI-5990 - Manual (Page 8)

Chapter 1. Installation
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VI-5990L Product Overview
The Visara VI-5990L Virtual Tape Library provides an interface between one or more
host mainframe systems and data storage, usually hard drive storage. Like the VI-5990A
it appears to the host(s) as if it were one or more IBM 3490 or IBM 3590 tape controllers.
The VI-5990L may appear as if it were as many as sixteen different tape controllers, with
each tape controller having up to sixteen virtual tape drives. Fully configured the VI-5990
may appear to have as many as 256 (virtual) tape drives. Data storage used by the
VI-5990L can be internal or external. Up to 120 TB of local storage may be installed
directly on the VI-5990L. External storage may be interfaced through Host Bus Adapters
(HBAs), Infiniband Adapters, or through Ethernet iSCSI. Two built in 10 Gbps Ethernet
interfaces may be configured to be used with iSCSI.
The VI-5990L is housed in an enterprise class 4U server which may be installed in any
standard 19” rack, and comes with dual processors, dual redundant hot-swappable power
supplies, and two 10Gbps Ethernet interfaces. Each power supply is capable of
completely running the platform. A pair of hard drives, set up in a mirrored-RAID
configuration supports the Linux operating system and VI-5990 server software. Failure
of a single hard drive is permissible without interrupting the operation of the platform.
Seven hot-swappable fans provide cooling.
Hardware monitoring of the power supplies, hard drives, fans, and cooling can be viewed
through a browser connection. Optionally you may configure the VI-5990L to generate
emails to warn of the same hardware failures if they were to occur.
Configuration and management of the platform is performed through a secure browser
connection (HTTPS), through either a locally-attached console (directly attached
keyboard, mouse, and monitor), or remotely through an Ethernet connection. The
VI-5990L ships with a default configuration that includes a default IP address.
Once configured, the VI-5990L is capable of running independently, without human
intervention. That is, if power is lost and regained, it will automatically boot back into
service using the stored configuration. You can manage the platform using the same
secure web browser connection from anywhere. Multiple management console interfaces
are supported by the VI-5990L.
VI-5990A/L
Since the VI-5990A and VI-5990L run the same basic software and function very
similarly, they will collectively be referred to as the VI-5990 throughout this manual,
unless specifics to one model or the other need to be made.