Bacula-users

[Bacula-users] Configuring autochanger with SAS LTO-5 drives

2017-06-02 00:03:18
Subject: [Bacula-users] Configuring autochanger with SAS LTO-5 drives
From: Ivan Adzhubey <iadzhubey AT rics.bwh.harvard DOT edu>
To: <bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2017 23:27:49 -0400
Hi,

I am trying to configure a Qualstar TLS-8466 autochanger, which has two IBM 
LTO-5 drives installed. The changer itself is connected to a SCSI HBA 
(Adaptec) but the drives are connected separately to another SAS HBA (LSI). 
The server runs Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS and bacula version 7.0.5 was installed from 
Ubuntu repository.

Both tape drives and the autochanger devices are recognized correctly and 
would pass various basic tests (e.g. mtx status, mt status, tapeinfo, etc). 
Here is the system's SCSI devices list:

# lsscsi -g
[2:0:0:0]    disk    LSI      9750-16i4e DISK  5.12  /dev/sda   /dev/sg0 
[2:0:1:0]    disk    LSI      9750-16i4e DISK  5.12  /dev/sdb   /dev/sg1 
[7:0:0:0]    mediumx QUALSTAR TLS-8466         227d  /dev/sch0  /dev/sg4 
[8:0:0:0]    tape    IBM      ULTRIUM-HH5      BBNF  /dev/st0   /dev/sg2 
[8:0:1:0]    tape    IBM      ULTRIUM-HH5      BBNF  /dev/st1   /dev/sg3

But I am still confused about few bits of configuration not very well 
explained in the documentation. I have used LTO-4 Device section from the 
distribution bacula-sd.conf file as a template. Here is my questions:

a) I have added ChangerDevice directive to the Device resources for the 
drives, pointing to their corresponding raw SCSI devices (/dev/sg2, /dev/
sga3), while Autochager has ChangerDevice configured as /dev/sg4. Is this 
configuration correct? I am assuming these tape raw devices only used for the 
purpose of running AlertCommand on the drives?

b) What is the effect of MaximumFileSize option and what would be its optimal 
value for my IBM LTO-5 SAS drives? I have used 8GB value found in one of the 
list posts, while the documentation suggests 2GB for LTO-4. But even set at 
8GB this would create lots of EOF marks on a 1.5TB tape, do we really need so 
many?

c) Should I try increasing the tape block size? Set it to fixed? I know this 
topic has been rather controversial, so any recent experience from similar 
drives/system would be appreciated. I plan to use spooling to a dedicated RAID 
volume, so hopefully hard drives should not be a bottleneck.

Listed below is the devices configuration from my bacula-sd.conf:

Autochanger {
  Name = TLS
  Device = Drive-1, Drive-2
  Changer Command = "/etc/bacula/scripts/mtx-changer %c %o %S %a %d"
  Changer Device = /dev/sg4
}

Device {
  Name = Drive-1                      # IBM ULTRIUM-HH5 on /dev/sg2
  Drive Index = 0
  Media Type = LTO-5
  Archive Device = /dev/nst0
  AutomaticMount = yes;               # when device opened, read it
  AlwaysOpen = yes;
  RemovableMedia = yes;
  RandomAccess = no;
  Maximum File Size = 8GB
  AutoChanger = yes
  Changer Device = /dev/sg2
  #
  # Enable the Alert command only if you have the mtx package loaded
  # Note, apparently on some systems, tapeinfo resets the SCSI controller
  #  thus if you turn this on, make sure it does not reset your SCSI
  #  controller.  I have never had any problems, and smartctl does
  #  not seem to cause such problems.
  #
#  Alert Command = "sh -c 'tapeinfo -f %c |grep TapeAlert|cat'"
#  If you have smartctl, enable this, it has more info than tapeinfo
  Alert Command = "sh -c 'smartctl -H -l error %c'"
}

Device {
  Name = Drive-2                      # IBM ULTRIUM-HH5 on /dev/sg3
  Drive Index = 1
  Media Type = LTO-5
  Archive Device = /dev/nst1
  AutomaticMount = yes;               # when device opened, read it
  AlwaysOpen = yes;
  RemovableMedia = yes;
  RandomAccess = no;
  Maximum File Size = 8GB
  AutoChanger = yes
  Changer Device = /dev/sg3
  # Enable the Alert command only if you have the mtx package loaded
#  Alert Command = "sh -c 'tapeinfo -f %c |grep TapeAlert|cat'"
#  If you have smartctl, enable this, it has more info than tapeinfo
  Alert Command = "sh -c 'smartctl -H -l error %c'"
}

Thanks,
Ivan

-- 
Ivan Adzhubey, Ph.D.
Instructor
Division of Genetics, Dept of Medicine
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
New Research Building, Room 0464C
77 Avenue Louis Pasteur
Boston, MA 02115
tel.: (617) 525-4728
fax:  (617) 525-4705
web: http://genetics.bwh.harvard.edu/wiki/sunyaevlab/



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