# Connecting your VTL devices to a Windows client
<a name="ConfiguringiSCSIClient-vtl"></a>

A Tape Gateway exposes several tape drives and a media changer, referred to collectively as VTL devices, as iSCSI targets. For more information, see [Requirements for setting up Tape Gateway](Requirements.md). 

**Note**  
You connect only one application to each iSCSI target. 

The following diagram highlights the iSCSI target in the larger picture of the Storage Gateway architecture. For more information on Storage Gateway architecture, see [How Tape Gateway works (architecture)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/latest/tgw/StorageGatewayConcepts.html).

 

![\[Storage Gateway tape drives and media changers as iSCSI targets connected to backup applications.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/latest/tgw/images/Gateway-VTL-iSCSI-vtl-diagram.png)


**To connect your Windows client to the VTL devices**

1. On the **Start** menu of your Windows client computer, enter **iscsicpl.exe** in the **Search Programs and files** box, locate the iSCSI initiator program, and then run it.
**Note**  
You must have administrator rights on the client computer to run the iSCSI initiator.

1. If prompted, choose **Yes** to start the Microsoft iSCSI initiator service.

1. In the **iSCSI Initiator Properties** dialog box, choose the **Discovery** tab, and then choose **Discover Portal**.

1. In the **Discover Target Portal** dialog box, enter the IP address of your Tape Gateway for **IP address or DNS name**, and then choose **OK**. To get the IP address of your gateway, check the **Gateway** tab on the Storage Gateway console. If you deployed your gateway on an Amazon EC2 instance, you can find the public IP or DNS address in the **Description** tab on the Amazon EC2 console.
**Warning**  
For gateways that are deployed on an Amazon EC2 instance, accessing the gateway over a public internet connection is not supported. The Elastic IP address of the Amazon EC2 instance cannot be used as the target address.

1. Choose the **Targets** tab, and then choose **Refresh**. All 10 tape drives and the media changer appear in the **Discovered targets** box. The status for the targets is **Inactive**.

1. Select the first device and choose **Connect**. You connect the devices one at a time.

1. In the **Connect to Target** dialog box, choose **OK**.

1. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each of the devices to connect all of them, and then choose **OK** in the **iSCSI Initiator Properties** dialog box.

On a Windows client, the driver provider for the tape drive must be Microsoft. Use the following procedure to verify the driver provider, and update the driver and provider if necessary. 

**To verify the driver provider and (if necessary) update the provider and driver on a Windows client**

1. On your Windows client, start Device Manager.

1. Expand **Tape drives**, choose the context (right-click) menu for a tape drive, and choose **Properties**.

1. In the **Driver** tab of the **Device Properties** dialog box, verify that **Driver Provider** is **Microsoft**.

1. If **Driver Provider** is not **Microsoft**, set the value as follows:

   1. Choose **Update Driver**.

   1. In the **Update Driver Software** dialog box, choose **Browse my computer for driver software**.

   1. In the **Update Driver Software** dialog box, choose **Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer**.

   1. Select **LTO Tape drive** and choose **Next**.

   1. Choose **Close** to close the **Update Driver Software** window, and verify that the **Driver Provider** value is now set to **Microsoft**.

1.  Repeat steps 4.1 through 4.5 to update all the tape drives.