Forum Discussion

PQuicken's avatar
PQuicken
Level 3
14 years ago
Solved

lin_tape on Sles 11

Hi

a customer of ours insists on using the lin_tape kernel driver on SLES 11 since they had issues with the standard st kernel module that NBU supports. When I tried to run the Configured Storage Devices wizard using the lin_tape kernel module  the wizard would detect the IBM robots but it does not detect the tape drives inside the robot. If I do the same using the st kernel module everything s detected correctly.

The linux device files are correctly added in both cases when I use the  rescan-scsi-bus.sh command. I updated the device mapping file.

Does anyone have an idea how to get the lin_tape kernel module working with NetBackup 7.01?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Linux
Managing Backup Devices
NetBackup
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    14 years ago

    Supported drivers are covered in NetBackup Device Configuration Guide:  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127069

    See p. 72:

    About the required Linux SCSI drivers
    To use SCSI tape drives and robotic libraries, the following drivers must be configured in the kernel or loaded as modules:
    ■ Linux SCSI generic (sg) driver. This driver allows pass-through commands to SCSI tape drives and control of robotic devices.
    .....
    ■ SCSI tape (st) driver. This driver allows the use of SCSI tape drives.
    ■ Standard SCSI driver.
    ■ SCSI-adaptor driver.

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    14 years ago

    Similar Issue:

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/device-configution-wizard-detects-drives-unusable-state

    I know something was changed in SLES 11 regarding the tape devices - can't recall what (?? Device naming scheme ??) . I would suggest checking if the lin_tape device driver is SLES 11 compliant.

    I never had any issues with the st device driver on SLES 11 - however I had plenty issues with IBM LTO device drivers in the past (non Linux).

  • PQuicken's avatar
    PQuicken
    Level 3
    14 years ago

    Hi

     

    welll this is coorect. The st kernel module works fine, but the customer insists on lin_tape, which give me the headache, So if anybody has an idea .....

     

    Thanks

     

    Peter

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    14 years ago

    I think you need to tell the customer that Symantec does not support the lin_tape driver and you can't recommend running in a unsupported configuration. There is no help from Symantec either in case of restore issues with lin_tape.

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    14 years ago

    Supported drivers are covered in NetBackup Device Configuration Guide:  http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH127069

    See p. 72:

    About the required Linux SCSI drivers
    To use SCSI tape drives and robotic libraries, the following drivers must be configured in the kernel or loaded as modules:
    ■ Linux SCSI generic (sg) driver. This driver allows pass-through commands to SCSI tape drives and control of robotic devices.
    .....
    ■ SCSI tape (st) driver. This driver allows the use of SCSI tape drives.
    ■ Standard SCSI driver.
    ■ SCSI-adaptor driver.

  • PQuicken's avatar
    PQuicken
    Level 3
    14 years ago

    Hi

     

    thanks to Marianne van den Berg the customer tested the setup again and proved that the situation that they tried to prevent with the lin_tape kernel module and their old backup software is not present when they use the st kernel module and netbackup.

     

    Thanks for ýour help

     

    Peter