For those who like to push the limitations of software, or who just want
to see if it works...
I was able to install NetBackup 5.1 on 32 bit CentOS 4.1, using a
Symbios SCSI card (it is a dual LVD160 from Antares) for the AIT-2 tape
drives, and an Adaptec AHA-2940UW Pro card hosting the robotics on a
Qualstar 46120 library. It is only a test environment for me, and is
there to support legacy read operations. Something we haven't had to do
in over a year, but it was time to upgrade from RH7. The host system is
a Dell 4100 P3-1ghz, with a 3com 3c985 gigabit card and 256MB ram. If
it sounds like I have scavenged hardware for this project... you are right.
The minimal install might be enough to get some netbackup going, but I
also selected the KDE and GNOME packages, plus some other utilities I
though were important. Having access to the GUI might be helpful some day.
Also make sure you install compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2.i386.rpm,
as it is necessary to make bpminlicense function. Without this you get
problems similar to the ncurses version problems some have experienced
when installing on RH9. ncompress-4.2.4-40.i386.rpm is also important
if you want to use the uncompress command to unpack the NB patches and
install downloads.
My robotics appear as /dev/sg0, and the non-rewind tape devices are
/dev/nst0 and /dev/nst1 etc.
Robtest and tpconfig do not have any problems assigning and operating
the library through these paths.
In the netbackup start script, comment out the line that says
$MAKE_SCSI_DEV as it hangs forever. I'm sure it is a conflict with the
2.6 kernel and udev. Even without this, the devices and robotics appear
at the same address each time.
I added the tape buffers and network buffers, and added the storage
device to the configuration, then ran some tests. It backs up nicely,
but reports one message per tape drive about an incorrect block size.
The dip switches say variable block size, but looking around in
/sys/class/scsi_tape/nst0 reveals the block size to be undefined. This
machine is a media server only.
I realize this is a totally unsupported configuration, but the
environment I'm creating is for testing things, and for migrating data
to test and development.
-Jon
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