Networker

Re: [Networker] Two jukeboxes using same pools

2006-08-17 14:07:41
Subject: Re: [Networker] Two jukeboxes using same pools
From: Tim Mooney <Tim.Mooney AT NDSU DOT EDU>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:04:11 -0500
In regard to: Re: [Networker] Two jukeboxes using same pools, Stuart Whitby...:

Another alternative which will avoid the licensing restriction is to
delete the old jukebox definition and leave a drive attached as a
standalone drive.  If a restore requests the tape, you can manually load
that tape using sjirdtag/sjimm to identify the slot and load the tape.
This depends on how your organisation works regarding restores though.
If users request restores from you, then you can do this.  If they do
them themselves, probably a bit tougher to implement.

This is exactly what we did when we migrated from one jukebox (STK 9710
& SDLT) to a new one (STK L700e, LTO3).  We only have one "unlimited slot"
license (oy, are those expensive), so that had to go to the new L700e.

We deleted the old jukebox, created the new one, and then added one of the
drives from the old jukebox as a standalone drive.

As a "funny" aside, just days before we were due to completely retire the
older jukebox, we received an open records request, which meant we were
compelled to recover any available email for a few select individuals.
That email was on 40+ tapes sitting in the old jukebox, which to NetWorker
was just a standalone tape drive (no barcode reader, no automatic
mounting, etc.).

To make matters worse, those tapes had been completely removed from the
media database, so we were going to have to first scan all 40+ tapes.
We chose scanner -m followed by nsrck -L7 for the clients in question,
since it's apparently faster than doing scanner -i.

I ended up writing a perl script that would function like the portion of
NetWorker that would automatically mount tapes when a recover message
indicated a particular tape was needed.  By keeping a separate file that
mapped barcodes to volume names, I was able to write a nsrjb replacement
that saved us from having to watch for needed tapes and move them and
mount them using the underlying tools.

Tim
--
Tim Mooney                                           Tim.Mooney AT ndsu DOT edu
Information Technology Services                      (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J6, IACC Building                           (701) 231-8541 (Fax)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105-5164

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