We are running a Storagetek L80 LTO tape library under Redhat Linux. We
have learned the following two painful lessons:
1. Make certain you have a proper /etc/st.conf file. Failure to
configure this file properly or not having one at all will make life
very uncomfortable for you when you go to recover data. You will see
"tape positioning by record disabled" messages, and NetWorker will take
forever to get itself to the right spot on the tape to begin the
recover. So, for example, a recover that might take one hour to get the
data and maybe 1 minute to get to the right spot to begin the recover
will now take one hour to get to the right spot plus another hour or so
to recover the data. We also observed extremely slow recover times once
the recovery actually started. So learn the easy way and set up the
st.conf file before you start any backups.
2. Make certain you have the right SCSI cables. There is no way to just
look at a SCSI cable and know for certain that it's the right type. Case
in point, we had what we were told were LVD cables. They plugged in just
dandy and had all the right connectors, but in time, we started
experiencing a lot of SCSI problems. It got to the point where every
morning I would come in to find one of two type of error messages
appearing on a given LTO device: "read open error: Invalid argument", or
"read open error device or resource busy". These cables looked perfectly
fine. They had only one part number located on them, no other wording or
print. It turns out that Storagetek had given us the wrong cables!!!!!
They replaced them, including the cables on the library, not just those
going to the server. I should note that the cables that were replaced on
just the library are now flat ribbon cables, not round cables. The new
ones connecting the library to the server are round ones, just like
before, but they have wording printed on them, but nothing about LVD.
Anyway, after replacing these cables our problems went away. The moral
of the story is that you can use the wrong cables and still have
everything run just fine for a while, BUT sooner or later, you will
start to see errors. So don't think that just because you're not seeing
errors that you have the right type of cables. Check the part numbers!
One thing I don't like about the L80 is the fact that they offer no way
to move tapes around in the library without opening the door or using
your backup software. The problem, of course, is that you can't use
NetWorker to move a tape into a drive without mounting it. So, if we're
having problems, and I want to do some testing using something like 'mt'
or 'tar' or some such thing, and I want to load a non-NetWorker (blank)
tape into the drive, I can't mount it using NetWorker. I have to open
the frikin' door up! Now you can buy a package that apparently runs over
the WEB and uses the ip address of the library, and it's sold by
Storagetek, but I think it's ridiculous t hat they don't build the
capability into the GUI panel on the front like Quauntum/ATL does with
their P1000 libraries. Now I have to go and buy some software package to
do that. Sheesh! When I called Storagetek about this they asked me why I
would ever want move tapes around! Unbelievable. The other thing that
seals the fat on these libraries is that they don't show you the tapes
that are in the slots via the GUI panel. Our Quantum/ATL libraries will
show you on the GUI each tape that's loaded in a slot. IT will show you
the bar code, and if the tape doesn't have a barcode it will indicate
that. The L80 shows nothing. You have to look through this narrow window
into the box and physically eyeball the slots. Of course, it's dark in
there. The least they could have done is put a light in there. I score
these guys a D- on product convenience, at least on their lower end
libraries, anyway. The higher end libraries may come with these features
built-in. I guess their attitude was that they wanted to keep the GUI
simple and leave all the advanced features to ancillary software via a
WEB browser. I guess there's a WEB server built in that would allow
connections via IP address of the library. Not sure. Haven't looked into
it.
As far as Solaris to Linux is concerned, I think the problem is that one
OS is little Endian and the other is Big endian, and that could mean
problems for the indexes when they're copied over. I've had at least one
person tell me this. We need to do the same thing, though, since our
primary server is on Solaris and we'd like to move it to Redhat Linux.
George
WE, too, are running our primary server on a Sun and would like to
switch it to Linux, but I don't recall the hangup with this. I think the
indexes are little endian versus big endian, and t hat could be a
problem
Matt Hemingway wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> Just wondering if anybody has any experience migrating Networker Server
> running on a Solaris 8 box to a Linux box?
>
> Also, if anybody has any experience with a StorageTek tape library running on
> Linux that would be helpfull as well.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Matt
>
> --
> ================
> Matt Hemingway
> PCNAlert
> www.pcnalert.com
> 626-585-2788
> ================
>
> --
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