Networker

Re: [Networker] Tape positioning by record is disabled.

2004-05-17 17:10:58
Subject: Re: [Networker] Tape positioning by record is disabled.
From: Matt Temple <mht AT RESEARCH.DFCI.HARVARD DOT EDU>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 17:10:52 -0400
Chad Smykay wrote:
Actually you can leave it to 0 for both

# SONY AIT-2
manufacturer=SONY model = "SDX-500C" {
can-bsr scsi2logical drive-buffering
timeout=800
long-timeout=14400
mode1 blocksize=0 density=0x00  # Block Size and Density
}

# SONY AIT-3
manufacturer=SONY model = "SDX-700C" {
can-bsr scsi2logical drive-buffering
timeout=800
long-timeout=14400
mode1 blocksize=0 density=0x00  # as close as possible to st.conf entry

I'm not sure if you have any AIT-2 drives but it sounds like you only have 2
AIT-3 drives.  So just leave it at 0 and set the block size in NetWorker to:

NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_2=128 (or to whatever you want)
NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_3=128 (or to whatever you want)
export NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_2 NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_3

Then you should be good from here on out.  Also check on that firmware too
as the AIT-3 drives had problems even mounting AIT-2 tapes.

Hope some of this info helps.

Thanks -- I upgraded the firmware.   Now if I make thsi change, I assume
I'll have trouble monuting the old tapes built with a diffetrnet
blocksize.   Also, do you know if an AIT-2 tape drive can use
192K blocks?

Also, does "handler default" mean "whatever NSR_DEV_BLOCK..." is set to?


                                               Matt Temple



Chad Smykay, RHCE, LCNA
Systems Storage Administrator
Rackspace Managed Hosting (TM)


-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Temple [mailto:mht AT research.dfci.harvard DOT edu]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 3:20 PM
To: Chad Smykay
Cc: 'Legato NetWorker discussion'
Subject: Re: [Networker] Tape positioning by record is disabled.

Please see additional response below   vvvvvvvvvvvvvv


Chad Smykay wrote:

Matt,

We used to use AIT-2 and AIT-3 tapes and tape drives in combination
with in our library and used to have issue.  What we ended up doing
was set the block size in both the ST driver and Networker to the
exact same block size for each type of drives and tapes.  Unless you
are trying to use types of tapes or drives for a specific purpose i.e.
faster restores then I would recommend setting them to both the same size.

On a side note we did find that there was any issue with AIT-3 drive
firmware not able to properly be backwards compatible with AIT-2 tapes.

We are currently running AIT-3 firmware:  0201

This is one of the most recent firmware's for AIT-3 drives.

Regards,




Chad Smykay, RHCE, LCNA
Systems Storage Administrator
Rackspace Managed Hosting (TM)

-----Original Message-----
From: Legato NetWorker discussion
[mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On Behalf Of Matt Temple
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 2:14 PM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] Tape positioning by record is disabled.

All,

       After a frustrating process in which I had a tape drive that
would label tapes that my other drives couldn't read, I chose to force the
blocksize on my AIT-3 tapes to 192K.   (I believed that was the handler
default for AIT-3, is this wrong?)

I tell Networker to use these block sizes in the startup:

NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_3=192
export NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_3
NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_2=64
export NSR_DEV_BLOCK_SIZE_8MM_AIT_2

This result in the following messages:

May 14 15:18:48 tapes logger: NetWorker media: (notice) setting (8mm
AIT-2) block size to (64 KB)
May 14 15:18:49 tapes logger: NetWorker media: (notice) setting (8mm
AIT-3) block size to (192 KB)


I run stinit and get kernel messages similar to:

st2: Block limits 2 - 16777215 bytes.

Since two of my drives will be getting only AIT-3 tapes, I set their
block size to 192K through nwadmin.

Checking with scanner, it looks like the block size is correctly set
on the tapes I've produced.

======================================================
When the tape is full and it's time to verify the media, I get the
following:

media notice: Volume "lnx57.0308" on device "/dev/nst1": Cannot decode
block. Verify the device configuration. Tape positioning by record is
disabled.
Mon 12:08:38 media info: verification of volume "lnx57.0308", volid
162008460 succeeded.

=======================================================

I thought the "cannot decode block" message only came when you didn't
run stinit and the tape simply used default 512-byte blocks.

Can someone tell me if I'm getting a real error?   Should I be labeling
my tapes or defining my drives differently?   What does "handler
default" realy mean -- I think the documentation for it is thin.




                                                         Matt Temple



Chad,

        Right now our stinit.def file looks like this:


# SONY AIT-3
manufacturer="SONY" model = "SDX-700C" { can-bsr scsi2logical
drive-buffering timeout=800 long-timeout=14400
mode1 blocksize=0 density=0x00 }

Are you suggesting I should change it to:

# SONY AIT-3
manufacturer="SONY" model = "SDX-700C" { can-bsr scsi2logical
drive-buffering timeout=800 long-timeout=14400
mode1 blocksize=196608 density=0x32 }


                                        Matt Temple


--
=============================================================
Matthew Temple                Tel:    617/632-2597
Director, Research Computing  Fax:    617/582-7820
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute  mht AT research.dfci.harvard DOT edu
44 Binney Street, LG300/300   http://research.dfci.harvard.edu
Boston, MA 02115              Choice is the Choice!

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--
=============================================================
Matthew Temple                Tel:    617/632-2597
Director, Research Computing  Fax:    617/582-7820
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute  mht AT research.dfci.harvard DOT edu
44 Binney Street, LG300/300   http://research.dfci.harvard.edu
Boston, MA 02115              Choice is the Choice!

--
Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
to listserv AT listmail.temple DOT edu or visit the list's Web site at
http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.html where you can
also view and post messages to the list.
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