Forum Discussion

SteveJD's avatar
SteveJD
Level 3
5 years ago

NetBackup Media Import - Operator Action Required

Hi... firstly, I'm running NetBackup v6.0 MP4, which is pretty old. I built my server specifically to duplicate a load of legacy backups onto newer LTO6 tapes, and that process worked perfectly well...
7.1.x and Earlier
Windows Server 2003 R2
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    5 years ago

    SteveJD 

    I am still battling to put puzzle pieces together. 

    As Nicolai said - if the images have not expired, there is no need to import tapes. 

    What does this state mean? 

    When attempting a restore I hoped the images would be available, however nothing appeared.... 

    Are you saying that you could locate files and folders in the Backup, Archive, GUI? 
    Or not? 
    I have no idea what 'nothing appeared' means. 

    What I do see from your robtest output is that a mount and unmount worked from the robot side, but it seems that the OS device path never recognized the tape mount: 

    "No media in drive {4,0,2,0}" 

    The 2nd-last number is the scsi target if memory serves me right. 

    If we look at 's d' output, we see that scsi id for drive 1 is 3, and scsi id for drive 2 is 4. 

    So, it seems to me if device paths at OS-level has changed and NBU device config is now incorrect. 
    This means that the tape library will mount the tape in a drive, but the OS device never sees and recognize the mount on the device path. 

    To fix this, delete the currently configured tape drives (no need to delete the robot as functionality seems to be okay), run the Device Config Wizard and allow the wizard to restart services. 
    (No need to re-config storage units, so you can skip that step)

    Let us know how that goes. 

Marianne's avatar
Marianne
Level 6

SteveJD 

This message is IMHO coming from the robot: 

Tape is unmountable

Please help us to help you - 

Aplogies for my lack of understanding, but I am a bit confused by your post - it seems that you have already duplicated tapes to LTO6, but then you say that you want to import images. 
Have the images that were duplicated to LTO6 expired? And now need to be imported again? 

You also say that you can see Images in the Catalog - that means that images have not expired.
Why then are you trying to import? 

To try and troubleshoot the 'mount' issue, please tell us more about devices and media: 

What tape drives are you using (Make/model) ?
Which media type is DA0026 ? If LTO6, does it have 'L6' at the end of the barcode on the tape? 

How are the tape drives and media configured in NBU - which density (hcart#) are the tape drives in NBU and which density is media (hcart#) ? 

Have you tried robtest to see if tape can be loaded in the drive outside of NBU? 
See this TN for robtest usage: https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100022873

You can try commands such as : 
s d            ### show contents of drives
s s            ###  show contents of slots - make a note of slot number for DA0026
m s# d1    ### move tape in slot # to drive 1
(wait for mount to take place) 
s d            ### show contents of drives to show media in drive
unload d1   ### eject tape from drive
m d1 s#    ###  move tape ejected from drive 1 to it's original slot #

Please let us know outcome of above testing (please copy the text output from the commands). 

For device-level troubleshooting, please locate vm.conf on the master/media server (<install-path>\Veritas\volmgr ).
Add this line:
VERBOSE
Save the file and restart NBU Device Management service. 
Please also check that bptm folder exists under <install-path>\Veritas\NetBackup\logs. If not, create the folder before attempting any imports or restores again.
bptm will log NBU actions. 

Device-level activity and errors will now be logged in OS Event Viewer System and Application logs. 

SteveJD's avatar
SteveJD
Level 3
5 years ago

The tapes I'm using are LTO6 and they were duplicated from older tapes 5 years ago. During the duplication process I believe the tapes were set to never expire. If I run a Verify on a tape such as DA0026, currently loaded in the TLD, I can see images.

When attempting a restore I hoped the images would be available, however nothing appeared so I thought perhaps they need reimporting? When I right click an image to import, I end up cancelling the job and I see the error described.

The TLD is a Tandberg Exabyte Magnum 224 with HP Ultrium-6 drives, these are set to HCart3 in the config. The tapes have L6 on the barcode.

The system has been switched off for some time and I expected it to work when needed. I must admit that I've forgotten certain aspects about the operation, but it has previously worked fine when restoring files and without issue, so it's a bit weird that it's not playing ball.

I'll run those commands soon as I can and post them.... thanks.

 

 

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    5 years ago

    SteveJD 

    I am still battling to put puzzle pieces together. 

    As Nicolai said - if the images have not expired, there is no need to import tapes. 

    What does this state mean? 

    When attempting a restore I hoped the images would be available, however nothing appeared.... 

    Are you saying that you could locate files and folders in the Backup, Archive, GUI? 
    Or not? 
    I have no idea what 'nothing appeared' means. 

    What I do see from your robtest output is that a mount and unmount worked from the robot side, but it seems that the OS device path never recognized the tape mount: 

    "No media in drive {4,0,2,0}" 

    The 2nd-last number is the scsi target if memory serves me right. 

    If we look at 's d' output, we see that scsi id for drive 1 is 3, and scsi id for drive 2 is 4. 

    So, it seems to me if device paths at OS-level has changed and NBU device config is now incorrect. 
    This means that the tape library will mount the tape in a drive, but the OS device never sees and recognize the mount on the device path. 

    To fix this, delete the currently configured tape drives (no need to delete the robot as functionality seems to be okay), run the Device Config Wizard and allow the wizard to restart services. 
    (No need to re-config storage units, so you can skip that step)

    Let us know how that goes. 

    • SteveJD's avatar
      SteveJD
      Level 3
      5 years ago

      I deleted the tape drives and ran the wizard to add them back. I'm now able to initiate an Import and the tape is locating the required session. I'm surprised by this because technically nothing had changed and it was working perfectly in the past.

      When the Import process completes I should be able to open the Backup/Restore GUI and see a session I can use to restore data.

      Thank you for your guidance.

  • Nicolai's avatar
    Nicolai
    Moderator
    5 years ago

    Tapes already imported does not need to be imported again unless data has been expired.

    You can verify if a tape has data on it by running the command bpimmedia  :

    # bpimmedia -L -mediaid CB7514

    Taken from : https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/doc/123533878-127136857-0/v123538836-127136857 

    If images are listed, try to run bpverify -id {barcode name of media}. This should demonstrate Netbackup can get access to the tape drives.