Understanding what is new with tape servers and object storage to tape
Tape server support has evolved with VBR but has improved in v12 with the ability to support Linux as a tape server. One of the many reasons for allowing backup administrators to switch the tape server component over to Linux is the license cost savings from dispensing with a Microsoft Windows server. Previous to VBR v12, the tape server role could only be installed on a Microsoft Windows server, but now we have Linux as an option. You can read about the requirements for tape servers for supported Linux distributions and the supported tape hardware in the Further reading section at the end of the chapter.
For my examples in this book section, I will use a VM with CentOS 7.x installed and Quadstor Virtual Tape Library (VTL) software for Linux. Information about Quadastor VTL can be found here: https://www.quadstor.com/virtual-tape-library.html.
Using Linux for a tape server
To set up the Linux server as...