MD110 External backup ...

[Jeppedal]

Hi!

We are at the moment managing some 400 MD's with various versions and both IPU and NIU interfaces. Eralier we used to make regular external backups to SyQuest discs, but they are not available anymore. Then we got a number of Jaz machines from IOMega. It seems like we have a problem with some combinations og IPU/NIU board and these drives, resulting in defective cards and/or HDU's. We have tried both active/passive and automatic termination on the drives.

Anyone with the same experience? I also appreciate suggestion on other solutions for making external backups. We are using FTP/MDDT (FTP) on some of the sites, but I need a more reliable solution for my old IPU sites.

Best regards
Paal E. Jeppedal

 

[Avstral]

Hi Paal,

We had bad experience with SCSI ZIP Drives from IOMega.
Every second backup was NOK.

They were very sensitive to cable length as support SCSI-2 (IPU have old SCSI on board, as I remember).
After cable altering (not more than 1 meter), backup stability improved, but not drastically. So, we had to return to HDU back (

Best regards

 

[Jeppedal]

Hi!

Thanks for Your feedback. Do You know if it would be OK to make a backup from an old IPU based site onto a HDU, an then mount that disc on a NIU board later to make a new backup via FTP?

Best regards
Paal E. Jeppedal

 

[Avstral]

There shouldn’t be any problems.

We have about 40 nodes and HDU's travel between a lot.

I'd only recommend making FICRI every time, when mount new disk.

Best regards

 

[dubdp]

Hi,

To bring an HDU from an IPU site to a NIU site and then use FTP to make an external backup works fine.

If you have a spare SCSI-cable you can connect the "backup" HDU to the SCSI bus and configure it as an additional disk mounted under a free mounting point in the file system. When this is done you can use FTP and copy what you need.

I recommend that you copy everything from the level below the mounting point and down. Doing this you will copy the entire file system structure and that is an advantage the day you need to copy from your PC back to an HDU.

If you don´t have an extra SCSI-cable you first have to uninstall the existing HDU and then install your backup HDU instead.

Be VERY careful if and when you use the FICRI command. Using FICRI erases the HDU. Erasing the backup HDU means there is nothing to copy to your PC. You will create a file system but it will be empty.

Another aspect is that the file system structure is not identical in older releases compered to the newer ones. FICRI creates the major portion of the file system so if FICRI is used in let´s say a BC11 system you cannot use the created file system in an old BC7 system.


//FICRI

 

[FICRI]

The posting above was made using a colleague´s PC. I didn´t observe that we were logged in using his login name. I just don´t want to confuse anyone.

//FICRI

 

[Jeppedal]

Thanks FICRI,

We will do some testing in our lab in beginning of next week. Do You know where the mounting point of the HDU would be in the file structure if we mount it in addition to an existing HDU?

Best regards
Paal E. Jeppedal

 

[FICRI]

Depending on how large your system is it may be using more than the two subfile systems you always have. To find out use the command FISCP:IODEV=SYSDISK1;

If you are only using SYSSUBFS11 and SYSSUBFS21 the next free mounting position would normally be USR3.

You initiate your additional HDU with IOSII and you have to name the disk and the subfile systems to something not already in use in the system´s total file system.

If your additional HDU contains data do NOT use FICRI at this point.

When mounting the subfile systems used you use the command FIMOI:SUBFS=XX,PATH=/SYSN/USR3; and
FIMOI:SUBFS=XX,PATH=/SYSN/USR4; if you want to mount two.

Check with FISCP:IODEV="the name of the additional HDU"; that all looks OK.

With an FTP-client (I use WS_FTP) you will now be able to see the additional HDU if you look down the USR3 or USR4 leg and you can start copying.


//FICRI

 

[Jeppedal]

Thanks!

Best regards
Paal