Best method to encrypt AIX LTO6 tape backups?


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Operating Systems AIX Best method to encrypt AIX LTO6 tape backups?
# 1  
Old 08-21-2017
Question Best method to encrypt AIX LTO6 tape backups?

Hello,

I need to be able to encrypt LTO tapes that our AIX writes to for backups.

We have a tape library (IBM TS3100) that our AIX host uses to write to LTO6 tapes. We then take those tapes off-site and restore to another AIX system using a 3580-H6S LTO6 tape drive - this is a very simple environment (single AIX host with a tape library/drive directly attached).

I know that the TS3100 has capabilities to encrypt the tapes that we can activate in the web interface of the tape library - however since we need to restore using a 3580-H6S tape drive I don't think this will work.

So from my research it looks like we need to leverage application managed encryption (AME) as this is the only supported form of encryption on the 3580-H6S. It appears we need IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager (ISKLM) but what I am failing to understand is how all this ties in together. If I install the ISKLM on Windows - do I update the driver configuration on AIX to poll ISKLM for encryption keys (which I would think would be transparent to the backup application as its being done at the driver level). There seems to be a lot of information on various products to make this work and I am just not getting it.

My goal is to encrypt the data offloaded to LTO6 tapes and to make it transparent to the backup application running within AIX (lets assume this is a shell script/wrapper around the tar command).

If anyone could point me to the right direction that would be great.

Last edited by c3rb3rus; 08-21-2017 at 06:54 PM..
# 2  
Old 08-21-2017
Microlite Edge with the encryption option.
www.microlite.com
# 3  
Old 08-22-2017
Could you use PGP or something similar? You obviously have to have the private key on the server that will be reading, but I'd put it on both so that you can test locally first.

What backup command are you using to write to the tape? That might give us some options.



Kind regards,
Robin
# 4  
Old 08-22-2017
I spoke to MicroLite support and AIX is not a supported OS any longer.

We use LoneTar currently (old version but it works); but it has no encryption capabilities. I have found stenc which may do the trick - testing this now.

Last edited by c3rb3rus; 08-22-2017 at 11:56 AM..
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. AIX

Ejecting tape on AIX & Some Tape commands

I am trying to use this command to eject the tape mt -f /dev/rmt/0 unload but it gives me error mt -f /dev/rmt/0 unload mt: 0511-575 unload is not a recognized subcommand. Usage: mt Subcommand Valid subcommands are: weof eof fsf bsf ... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: filosophizer
5 Replies

2. SCO

SCO tape backups won't restore in Ubuntu Linux environment

Hello folks. I have the following problem: I'm trying to create a tape backup of a list of files on a 10 year old server, running SCO Openserver 5.0.5 (the tape drive is a Seagate STD224000N, connected as a SCSI drive). I then want to restore the contents of this tape onto a new server... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: klabelkholosh
6 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Question about a tape write error doing backups

Hello all. UNIX dummy here :p Anyway I was trying to do a full backup of my work server SUN SPARC SERVER 1000 machine (yes we are actually using this dinosaur). I did the ufsdump comand and everything was fine until I got to the dumping of regular files. During the run I got the following... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: hammerva
7 Replies

4. AIX

Tape backups: do you always verify them after doing them ?

It may seam a bit odd that I ask this question. After you have done your backups to tapes, do you verify the content of the tapes ? - never - sometimes - always The reason I am asking is that here in the office, all the backup procedures include verifying the content of the tapes (no... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: Browser_ice
5 Replies

5. AIX

How to optimize our tape backups ?

Hi, I am currently looking at how we can optimize and speed up our backups here. I am just a beginner operator and our system admin hardly knows anything (long term interim). There is this particular TAR backup of DB backups that for a 10.5Gb amount of files, it takes 5 hours to do the backup on... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: Browser_ice
6 Replies

6. Solaris

Remote Backups to a Tape

My tape library is broken but backups still need to go on .I have 2 boxes running Solaris 10 Got SCSI tape drive attached to the DEV box ( my PROD Box has only fibre) I want to take the prod backup from the DEV box using ufsdump. ie /usr/sbin/ufsdump 0uvf DEV:/dev/rmt/1n... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Msororaji
2 Replies

7. Filesystems, Disks and Memory

Tape drives used for taking backups

Hi, I am a abit new in AIX system administration field. I want to gather knowledge about backup techniques. As per my knowledge we use Tape archives for taking backups. Can anyone pls explain me in detail abt tape archive? Whether these tape archives come along with the systems or we have to... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: forumsrahul
1 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

verifying tape backups

Hello all, how would i go about verifying that a tape is backing up data correctly other than restoring the backup. for example, what command would i use to check the tape for errors? Any and all help is appreciated -Coffee (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: coffeebrown
0 Replies

9. AIX

backups getting it so the tape doesn't rew.

Currently am running the backup command for AIX 5L and see that the tape is rewinding after the completion of the back. backup -0 -u -f /dev/rmt0 / >> $file 2>&1 What can I do to stop allow the backup to rew after the completion of this job? Any thoughts? Thanks again. (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: justinburbridge
2 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Multiple backups on one tape

For those with backup tapes (and I just bought and installed a Seagate one for my FreeBSD box) I want to know how to get the most out of each tape by placing multiple backups on each tape (potentially 20GB). Please correct me if I'm wrong: First, retension the tape: # mt retension next, turn... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: WIntellect
3 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question