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Stratega's avatar
Stratega
Level 3
12 years ago

Rotating USB Devices in BE2012

I'm running on SBS 2013 Std R2 and am trying to set up multiple external USB drives within a pool, e.g. MON-FRI. I would like to use the WD 3TB externals that other users had success with; however, I'm unable to get the drives to go from ONLINE to OFFLINE when I switch out the devices. I've tried changing the UUID on the drive (as suggested py pkh), restarted services in between and restarting the server when possible. All with no luck. Symantec is telling me to look at the HCL, and that WD is not on the list. Has anyone run into this situation before? If so, how were you able to solve the problem so that you could define (5) storage devices prior to adding them to a pool

Thank you for any information you can provide.

  • I'm running on SBS 2013 Std R2

    SBS 2013 is not supported as a media server.  See the SCL below

    BE 2012 SCL

    This could be why you are having problems.

  • I am sorry. I must have mistyped the OS. I'm running SBS 2003 R2-Standard.

  • 1) Are these disks plugged into the media server?

    2) Do they appear in the Windows Explorer when they are plugged in?

    3) Use fsutil and check that the sector sizes are not 4k sector sizes as this is not supported until Windows 2012.

  • PKH, thank you for responding. 

    1. Yes, the disks are plugged into the media server, which is also the DC. This is a single server shop.
    2. Yes, they appear in Explorer when plugged in. Also, as expected, the drive letter is consistently G: when the swap occurs. BE notes the drive as ONLINE when plugged in and OFFLINE when "Safely Remove Hardware" is performed
    3. I queried the drives and have found that they do have 4k sector sizes. Do you think going through the exercise of reformatting/repartitioning will have an affect? It was my understanding that BE is simplying querying the drive type and not necessarily the VOLINFO and drive characteristics. 

    Thanks again

  • Hi Stratega,

    Please check the links below and see if it helps you:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH38839

    USB drives used with the same drive letter and Removable B2D device.  Issue is caused from multiple Drive SIDs (Security Identifiers) seen on the same BEWS (Backup Exec for Windows Servers) device, Removable B2D folder. (Ref: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH66029)

    A similar issue (but not same) was reported in 2010 R3 and prior versions:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH155949

  • 2) Did you set up all the drives to have the same drive letter?  If so, then you should set them up with different drive letters.

    Also, check that they do not have the same diskid's.  If they do, then change the diskids to be unique. See my blog below

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/blogs/changing-diskid

    3) You should reformat the disk to use 512kb emulation mode sector sizes.  Otherwise, you may encounter problems using them.