Networker

Re: [Networker] NetWorker + Windows SAN Tapes

2006-09-06 15:47:56
Subject: Re: [Networker] NetWorker + Windows SAN Tapes
From: Brian Narkinsky <BNarkinsky AT CCLAFLORIDA DOT ORG>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:40:28 -0400
I was never able to get totally rid of the problem. But I was able to
get it down to where it only bit us every 3 or 4 months.  And then if I
got the reboot order just right it usually did not happen.  
7 Windows 2000 Storage nodes sharing an hp tl895 and MSL6060

I did 4 things.

1) Make sure that the RSS service is not running on the windows storage
nodes.  You can disable it per drive but, disabling the service seemed
to work a little better.
2) Enable Persistent binding on the HBA
3) did a static map on the Fibre-to-scsi bridge
4) Upgraded the HSG80 SAN controllers from 8.6 to 8.7.  This seemed to
clear up a lot of SCSI resets that would sometimes cause things to get
out of order.

Luckily I don't have to deal with this anymore as I am at a new job now
and we don't use Networker on Windows.

Brian Narkinsky
Senior Systems Analyst
College Center for Library Automation
Tallahassee, FL



 

-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of Davina Treiber
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:55 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] NetWorker + Windows SAN Tapes

Gaddy wrote:

>Davina wrote:
>  
>
>>Persistent binding is not sufficient to totally solve this problem.
>>
>>Persistent binding locks down the binding of WWPN or WWNN to SCSI 
>>b.t.l addresses.
>>It does not control the mapping of SCSI addresses to Windows device 
>>names.
>>    
>>
>
>YES, Davina matches exactly the point
>(which she does most of the time :-)
>[ enjoy your postings very much -sg-]
>  
>
**blush**

>Persistent binding would only help, if NetWorker could work with 
>physical addresses like [email protected].
>  
>
Persistent binding does help, sorry if I implied that it doesn't. 
Persistent binding is a "good thing" and should always be used. It
reduces the problem and prevents devices from moving around due to
purely SAN related issues, it just doesn't solve the whole problem.

>Unfortunately it could not, or could it? [ TSM can :-(  ]
>  
>
I heard some years ago about a new feature of 7.x that Legato called
"device serialisation". I am still unclear what this feature actually
offers and how it can be used. Does anyone know?

>Changing the OS type is NOT an option,
>because investment in 250++ servers (many 4-/8-way) is already huge.
>  
>
Fair enough, and Windows is a fully supported platform that should be
possible to configure for tape devices in s stable manner.

>So I'm still looking for other Wintel NetWorkers who have to deal with 
>the problem and have found ways to ease the pain a bit.
>  
>
This is in fact a Microsoft problem, but it ought to be possible for EMC
to come up with a robust solution to it. You have hit the nail on the
head in your last message, we need to be able to configure tape devices
in NetWorker based on their SCSI addresses rather than via the rather
flaky method of using Windows device names such as \\.\Tape0. I don't
think this is possible using current NetWorker releases, perhaps EMC
should be looking at this for a future version. I would _love_ to be
proved wrong on this issue....

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