Device Ordering Issue 1

[Pancevo1956]

I have read manual Networker Administration Guide:


"A number of issues may be caused by NetWorker device configuration being out of
sync due to an external change in device ordering. Problems that are encountered
include:
? Unable to unmount a tape
? Inventory reports volumes are not in expected locations
? Tape is mounted into a drive but label cannot be read
? Tape is loaded but cannot be labeled
To resolve problems associated with device ordering changes, you can either delete
the media library and devices in the NetWorker Console, and reconfigure the library,
or you can perform the following procedure:
1. Use the inquire command to obtain a list of the devices with their SCSI addresses,
OS drive path and serial numbers.
2. Use the sjisn scsidev@B.T.L command for the autochanger from the inquire
output. For example:
sjisn scsidev@1.2.0
This will provide the autochanger element IDs and the drive serial numbers.
3. Match the drive serial numbers from the two reports to associate drivepaths to
library element IDs.
4. Repeat Step 1 to Step 3 for each storage node to be configured.
5. Run the jbconfig command with the drive mapping determined in the above"

This is exactly the problem I have come across. I have several storage nodes and networker server. The problem is that I do not undersatnd what is meant by 3? What exactly I have to do?

 

[Pancevo1956]

That is what I have as the output on my networker server:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>inquire
scsidev@0.0.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk, \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
S/N: CK200071900247
WWNN=6006016049AD1C003A826E441E35DC11

PORT=00000001
scsidev@0.1.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.2.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.3.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.4.0:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 64D0|Tape
scsidev@4.0.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.1.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.2.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.3.0GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.4.0:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 64D0|Tape, \\.\Tape1
S/N: 1210266406
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 12102664
06
WWNN=500308C175E80423
WWPN=500308C175E80424
PORT=00000001
scsidev@4.4.1:ADIC Scalar 24 310A|Autochanger (Jukebox), \\.\Changer0
S/N: ADIC_1_C00027529

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ssjin scsidev@4.4.1
'ssjin' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>sjisn scsidev@4.4.1
Serial Number data for scsidev@4.4.1 (ADIC Scalar 24 ):
Library:
Serial Number: ADIC_1_C00027529
Drive at element address 256:
SCSI-3 Device Identifiers:
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 1210266406
Drive at element address 257:
SCSI-3 Device Identifiers:
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 1210266394

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

The same output is generated at any of my storage nodes.

 

[Pancevo1956]

I have run the following command :

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>jbconfig

Jbconfig is running on host server10-1rd.fplus.local (Windows Server 2003 5.2),
and is using server10-1rd.fplus.local as the NetWorker server.

1) Configure an AlphaStor Library.
2) Configure an Autodetected SCSI Jukebox.
3) Configure an Autodetected NDMP SCSI Jukebox.
4) Configure an SJI Jukebox.
5) Configure an STL Silo.
6) Configure a Microsoft Removable Storage Jukebox.

What kind of Jukebox are you configuring? [1] 2
14484:jbconfig: Scanning SCSI buses; this may take a while ...
14485:jbconfig:
All the Jukeboxes that are connected are already configured.
No new jukeboxes are found on host server10-1rd.fplus.local.

Do I have to delete library and how? Briefly, I do not understand what manual procedure is, or how to follow what is written there.

 

[denisfr]

Hello,

it seems that you have a jb and 2 lto drives.

The problem is that, under some circumstances, the drive ordering is not 'reboot-proof', so a drive known as tape1 may be re-discovered as tape2 after a reboot (problem may be resolved by a 'persistent binding', but I don't know how to get this under windows).

If you have no jukebox, it always works fine because NW send data directly to the drives.

But if you have a JB, NW will tell the JB to load a tape on the tape1, but in fact, it is the tape2 (because the JB configuration has not been changed). The JB will mount the tape, and after that NW will send data directly throught adaptator (without querying anything from the JB), but due to 'mis-naming' of the drive, NW will not find the tape on the correct drive (unreadable label or the label is null and xxxx was expected...).

In this case , you must delete the JB (in the NMC) after having unmounted all and recreate it (before doing that check some value like idle timeout or sleeping delay...).

You'll not loose data (the media database will not be modified) and after having recreated the JB the tapes will be 'relinked' with media database entries.

For the 3. :

you will have to check the s/n of each drive in order to see if the tape number (\\tape..) is the same after reboot.
But in your case, a drive does not show its s/n (scsidev@0.4.0), so try to perform an inquire -l, or bet that with only two drives, a single s/n is correct to find the drive ordering ;-)

Denis

 

[Pancevo1956]

Well, that is correct. I was guessing the problem was due to device reordering. Yes there is 2 LTO drives. On one of storage node I have:


Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\mb_admin>inquire -l

-l flag found: searching all LUNs, which may take over 10 minutes per adapter
for some fibre channel adapters. Please be patient.

scsidev@0.0.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk, \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
S/N: CK200071900247
WWNN=6006016049AD1C001CB0F2F72035DC11

PORT=00000001
scsidev@0.0.1GC RAID 5 0326|Disk, \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
S/N: CK200071900247
WWNN=600601602BC41D004D6E42E4F077DC11

PORT=00000001
scsidev@0.1.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.2.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.3.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@0.4.0:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 64D0|Tape
scsidev@4.0.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.0.1GC RAID 5 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.1.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.2.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.3.0GC RAID 10 0326|Disk
scsidev@4.4.0:IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 64D0|Tape, \\.\Tape0
S/N: 1210266406
ATNN=IBM ULTRIUM-TD3 12102664
06
WWNN=500308C175E80423
WWPN=500308C175E80424
PORT=00000001
scsidev@4.4.1:ADIC Scalar 24 310A|Autochanger (Jukebox), \\.\Changer0
S/N: ADIC_1_C00027529

C:\Documents and Settings\mb_admin>

Well, I am wondering whether rebooting might solve the problem or restarting networker services, or it might get worse?

 

[a060463xyz]

If you have at least networker 7.5 you can use persistent tape names with windows.
Therefore you have to set the registry key :HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\CurrentControlSet\Control\Tape\Persistence = 1
After a reboot your tapes no longer have the tape symbolic names tape0 through tapeN but a symbolic name derivrd from the Tapes serial number. So there can be no more Tape disorder.
A new Tape symbolic name can read : \\.\Tape2147483645

After this you have to changee the tape names in your library with jbedit :
First delete Tape0 ..n

jbedit -d -f \\.\Tape0 -E 256
and so on.

Then recreate the tape with their new
tape symbolic name e.g. :

jbedit -a -f \\.\Tape2147483645-E 256


If needed repeat this for each windows Storage node.

If you have to make a Networker Upgrate consider 7.5 Sp2.