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Re: [Networker] SLAs and backup cost estimates
2008-05-16 15:19:48
On May 16, 2008, at 2:56 PM, Fazil Saiyed wrote:
Hi,
Stan, thanks for the update, what i meant by " Device Management " is
jbconfig\Gui to get back to base config if there are problems with
devices
and we need to rebuild or adjust the backup server, recently networker
added "jbedit" but now we exclusively use GUI. I have a script now
that
captures pool, device associations, client config etc in case i need
to
refer back.
Major problems exist with keeping track of " clone completion" Media
movement with correct retention to Offsite for us, reporting on what
being
backed up in real time with actionable items remains deficient. We
have
now moved most of the scheduling to external job schedulers.
During DR networker never fails to surprise us, whetter it's long boot
times due to " reverse name resolution" ( now we have no host file,
we use
DNS" to
Devices not working right, to recovers failing ( could drivers,
hardware
issues at offsite") we do not use replication or have standby server
for
recover at DR.
Frustration mounts as recovery team wants their data fast.
We use ADIC Tape lib at offsite vendor site, which is also used
locally,
every time at DR it's different reason why networker takes longer to
recover, from HBA, Hardware, name resolution etc.
Reconfiguring Networker at DR involves removing existing config that
is
usually the most time consuming, i whish networker recovery is not
tied to
it, or changed in a fashion that you recover networker indexes &
functionality and either re-configure hardware or import hardware
config
separately, this would speed up connecting to Tape Drives\Tape Lib.
Just my thoughts.
We have two tape libraries. One tape library (our Sony PetaSite) has
14 Sony S-AIT1 tape drives in it, and roughly 1000 tape slots. This
tape library is connected via fibre channel to my Solaris 10 sparc
NetWorker server (its a Sun T2000) and also to a Sun X4500 with
Solaris 10 x86. This aspect of it was all set up by an outside
consultant with Cambridge Computer Services. I did not have to use
jbconfig at all to set it up only because the consultant did that part
of it. I have not had to touch that configuration since the last time
it was changed last October when we wired in the X4500. Four of the 14
tape drives are shared via dynamic drive sharing. Five of the tape
drives are local to the NetWorker server. The remaining five are local
to the X4500 storage node. All are wired in via a Qlogic SAN switch.
This Sony PetaSite was first deployed four years ago and last upgraded
two years ago. It has been running without interruption for the past
two years since it was upgraded to have more tape drives. I have not
rebooted it since that time (it runs a modified version of Red Hat
Linux). On the other hand, on the average of once a week, one of the S-
AIT1 tape drives chokes on a tape and NetWorker fails to verify it.
When that happens, I almost always have to schlep over to the building
where the tape library is housed and power cycle the affected tape
drive, but I haven't needed to do anything at the OS level to keep the
devices happy.
I am aware that NetWorker needs improvement with how tape cloning is
done, but it is not a pain point at my site. Although we do ship a few
tapes off-site, they are the original copies. We don't bother cloning
the tapes before shipping them off-site, but we also replicate the
data on those tapes to a disk device (outside of NetWorker) before
each night's backups run. So if we need to get back a file quickly, we
can just copy it over, plus the replicants are off-site at our SunGard
DR facility.
My other storage node, which is a Dell 2950 with a Qualstar tape
library that has 4 LTO-3 tape drives, I can't seem to get it to
maintain persistent binding. The tape drives are all wired into
individual HBA ports on the Dell. The HBA cards are Dell branded, but
made by Qlogic. Every once in a while, NetWorker loses track of which
tapes are in which LTO-3 drives due to a loss of the fibre channel
binding. I quickly learned (with help from EMC tech support) that
power cycling the tape library and the 2950, then rebuilding the tape
library resource (via the NMC GUI) fixes the problem just fine. In
fact, this problem occurred last week when I was in Florida on
vacation and I had taken the precaution of documenting the procedure
to delete the tape library resource and rebuild it. A colleague back
in the office did what my documentation said to do and its been
working fine since. I haven't needed to use jbconfig for this process
though; the GUI works just fine. I am also considering replacing the
HBA cards in my Dell 2950 with cards that have more robust drivers.
The only time frustration built here by anyone who needed to do a
recover was when the disk array on our old Sun V480 died last October,
just when a client with 1TB worth of data also died. Not being a
hardware guy, it took several days to diagnose the problem and fix it.
This was certainly not a NetWorker issue and the hardware involved was
replaced sinc that failure.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
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