Tape Drives in PVE instead of PBS

[guywhotypeslow]

TL;DR Can you install the tape library packages from Proxmox Backup Server into in Proxmox Virtual Environment to give it the same tape library support without having to run a separate PBS instance.

I recently acquired a tape library and started looking at how to implement it in Proxmox. I found that proxmox backup server seems to have great support for tape drives but there is one issue, it cannot write directly to the tape and instead has to save the backup to a disk first and then backup to tape. Since I am not currently using PBS this would mean I have to build a new server just to use it. I have a 12 TB RAID 5 (6 TB x 3) so buying enough drives to duplicate that plus the additional space needed for incremental backups etc. is more than I was hoping to spend. So, I was wondering if it is possible to use tape drives directly from PVE. This is a tape library so it isn't a simple matter of plugging one in and moving data to it. PBS has a whole inventory space for what tapes are in the library etc. Can I install the same tape packages that are in PBS into PVE and give it the same level of tape library functionality? and if so how would I go about doing that?

 

[dcsapak]

no that won't work, the way the pbs tape integration works is not seperately available and is using a special format for the tapes anyway (so you cannot put arbitrary data on it)
the only way to backup to tape is via a pbs datastore first and then to tape

 

[LnxBil]

only way to backup to tape is via a pbs datastore first and then to tape

IMHO, this is the only way. No one wants to backup directly to tape nowadays, it's not parallelizable.

 

[guywhotypeslow]

IMHO, this is the only way. No one wants to backup directly to tape nowadays, it's not parallelizable.

On some level I agree. If I had infinite budget I wouldn't even consider it. However, with limited funds being able to use tape directly would allow me to use tape for large backup/archive tasks without having to spend even more money for an equal amount of disk storage. I was hoping tape would be a cheaper cost per TB than normal disks but if you factor in having to buy disks anyways it's even more expensive.

 

[guywhotypeslow]

no that won't work, the way the pbs tape integration works is not seperately available and is using a special format for the tapes anyway (so you cannot put arbitrary data on it)
the only way to backup to tape is via a pbs datastore first and then to tape

That is pretty much what I figured though of course not exactly what I wanted to hear. I would like to clarify one thing though. Are you saying I have no way of using tape storage utilizing LTFS (this is LTO 6 tape btw) in proxmox at all, or would it just not be quite the way it would work in PBS?