Tape and Object Storage - Polystack Documentation

Overview

Ironcore Backup Solution (IBS) supports two long-term archival backends:

LTO Tape Libraries — LTO-5 and newer for offline, compliance-grade archival. Best for the 3-2-1 backup strategy and immutable offline copies.
S3-Compatible Object Storage — elastic capacity for the Backup site or cloud-based archival. Best for large archival retention without dedicated storage hardware.

This page covers tape library integration, S3 datastore configuration, and the trade-offs between the two.

Prerequisites

Administrator role on the Polystack platform
For tape: an LTO-5 or newer drive, optionally with a tape autoloader
For S3: an S3-compatible endpoint, access credentials, and a bucket

When to Choose Tape vs. Object Storage

Criterion	Tape	S3-Compatible
Offline / air-gap	Yes (when ejected)	No
Compliance immutability	Strong (physical removal)	Strong (bucket lock if supported)
Capacity scaling	Manual (more tapes / library expansion)	Elastic
Throughput	Sequential, high (200+ MB/s per drive)	Variable, network-bound
Random access	Poor — sequential read required	Good
Cost at scale	Lowest per TB long-term	Pay-as-you-go
Operational overhead	Higher (handling, vaulting, drives)	Lower

Many sites combine both: S3 for the day-to-day archival and tape for yearly compliance snapshots vaulted offline.

Tape Library Integration

Supported Hardware

Component	Support
LTO Generations	LTO-5 and newer (LTO-4 best-effort)
Drives	Single-drive or multi-drive libraries
Autoloaders	SCSI / SAS media changers (probed via `pmtx`)
Barcoded media	Yes — barcode label generator included
Encryption	Drive-side or chunk-side (AES-256-GCM at chunk level)

Register a Tape Library

Deployment Console
CLI

Open Tape

Navigate to Backup Solution > Tape Backup > Libraries.

Add a library

Click Add Library. Enter:

Name: lto-library-01
Device path: /dev/sg5 (or the SCSI generic device)
Type: Autoloader

Scan media

Click Inventory. The library scans every slot and registers barcoded media in the media catalog.

Configure drives

Open the Drives sub-page. Confirm each drive is detected and register its block size, compression, and encryption preferences.

Save

Click Save.

The library is online and ready for media pool assignment.

ironcore-backup tape library create \
  --name lto-library-01 \
  --path /dev/sg5 \
  --type autoloader

Inventory all media

ironcore-backup tape inventory --library lto-library-01

Create a Media Pool

A media pool groups tapes that share the same purpose — for example, “yearly archival” or “off-site rotation.”

Create a media pool

ironcore-backup tape pool create \
  --name yearly-archive \
  --retention "keep-yearly=7" \
  --encrypt-with project-master-key

Schedule a Tape Backup Job

Annual archival to tape

ironcore-backup tape backup \
  --pool yearly-archive \
  --include "keep-yearly=*" \
  --eject \
  --schedule "yearly 04:00"

Flag	Description
`--pool`	Target media pool
`--include`	Filter expression for which snapshots to archive
`--eject`	Eject the tape after job completes — operator must vault it
`--schedule`	Run on a calendar schedule

Tape Restore

Restore a backup from tape

ironcore-backup tape restore \
  --media TAPE0042 \
  --target ibs-primary

The Tape Worker mounts the requested tape (autoloader) or prompts the operator to insert it (manual). The chunks are read sequentially and rehydrated into the target datastore. Restore continues from there using the standard pipeline.

Barcode Label Generator

For libraries that ship without barcoded media, IBS includes a barcode label generator. Print on Avery 5160 or compatible labels.

Deployment Console
CLI

Navigate to Tape Backup > Tools > Barcode Generator. Enter a prefix and count, click Generate PDF.

ironcore-backup tape labels generate \
  --prefix TAPE \
  --start 1 \
  --count 100 \
  --output /tmp/labels.pdf

Operator Workflow

S3-Compatible Object Storage

Supported Endpoints

AWS S3 and S3-compatible third-party services
On-premises object storage gateways
Polystack Object Storage service

Create an S3 Datastore

See Datastores for the full provisioning procedure. The summary:

ironcore-backup datastore create \
  --name ibs-archival-s3 \
  --type s3 \
  --endpoint https://s3.<your-domain> \
  --bucket polystack-backup-archival \
  --region default \
  --access-key "AKIA..." \
  --secret-key "..." \
  --gc-schedule "monthly" \
  --verify-schedule "monthly" \
  --request-rate-threshold 500

Monitoring and Cost Control

Telemetry	Use For
Request count per minute	Detect runaway sync jobs
Egress bandwidth	Forecast monthly bandwidth cost
Stored bytes	Forecast monthly storage cost
Threshold alerts	Notify on request-count exceedances

Enable the request-rate-threshold alert on every S3 datastore. A misconfigured sync job can issue millions of unnecessary requests, driving up cost. The alert dispatches via the configured notification group.

Lifecycle Policies

For very long-term archival, configure provider-side lifecycle policies on the bucket — for example, transitioning older objects to colder storage classes. IBS does not require any specific lifecycle setup, but interactions between provider lifecycle and IBS pruning should be tested before going to production.

Combined Tape + S3 Strategy

This layered topology gives you:

Layer	Recovery Window	Cost
Primary datastore	1-3 weeks	High (fast storage)
Backup site S3	52 weeks	Medium (object storage)
Tape library	7-25 years	Low (cold storage)
Off-site vault	Indefinite	Lowest (physical media)

Troubleshooting

Tape drive not detected

Verify the SCSI generic device exists (lsscsi -g). Confirm the user running the tape worker has read/write access to the device. Check the dmesg output for SCSI errors.

Inventory shows empty slots that contain tapes

The autoloader media changer may be stuck. Issue a manual library reset and re-inventory.

ironcore-backup tape library reset lto-library-01
ironcore-backup tape inventory --library lto-library-01

S3 datastore returns HTTP 403

Credentials or bucket policy issue. Confirm the access key and secret key, and ensure the bucket policy permits s3:PutObject, s3:GetObject, s3:DeleteObject, and s3:ListBucket.

S3 datastore slow performance

Throughput is bound by the endpoint and the network. Check the request rate in the Dashboard. Consider increasing parallel chunk uploads on the datastore configuration.

Next Steps

Replication and Sync

Replicate from Primary to S3 or tape staging

Datastores

Manage all datastore backends from one place

Retention Policies

Retention windows for tape and S3 long-term storage

Verification and Validation

Verify tape and S3-backed snapshots

​Overview

​When to Choose Tape vs. Object Storage

​Tape Library Integration

​Supported Hardware

​Register a Tape Library

Open Tape

Add a library

Scan media

Configure drives

Save

​Create a Media Pool

​Schedule a Tape Backup Job

​Tape Restore

​Barcode Label Generator

​Operator Workflow

​S3-Compatible Object Storage

​Supported Endpoints

​Create an S3 Datastore

​Monitoring and Cost Control

​Lifecycle Policies

​Combined Tape + S3 Strategy

​Troubleshooting

​Next Steps

Replication and Sync

Datastores

Retention Policies

Verification and Validation

Overview

When to Choose Tape vs. Object Storage

Tape Library Integration

Supported Hardware

Register a Tape Library

Create a Media Pool

Schedule a Tape Backup Job

Tape Restore

Barcode Label Generator

Operator Workflow

S3-Compatible Object Storage

Supported Endpoints

Create an S3 Datastore

Monitoring and Cost Control

Lifecycle Policies

Combined Tape + S3 Strategy

Troubleshooting

Next Steps