Forum Discussion

mohsinmansoor's avatar
11 years ago

Old faulty Tape Library replaced with a new one

Hi, hope you all are having a good time.

I just faced a tape library issue and after trying fixes ultimately the hardware vendor replaced it with a new same model library.

Now that the library has been replaced, we now have a new robot configured, however the old cartridges (holding valid data) are still under the old robot and volume group.

I need to move those cartridges under new robot. I wanted to know the steps to be followed after i have inserted those cartridges in the new library.

Environment information:

Netbackup version 7.5.0.4

OS (AIX 6.1 : Master) and (Windows 2008 R2 : Media Server).

Tape Library (Dell PowerVault TL4000 Tape Library : LTO5)

Regards,

Mohsin Mansoor

  • Did you reconfigure the robot with another robot number in netbackup?

    if yes,

    you need to eject the tapes form form the old libraary in netbackup, ( moving them Robot contorl to standalone) and also remove tapes from OLD library to new Library 

    once that is done.. make sure you have valid media generation rules and barcode rules for new robot and update the tape information with Inventory.

  • Further to Nagalla advice ...

    Look at the barcodes you have already in the screens that show the media in NBU.

    Eg. AA1234L4

    You need to ensure that the new library is set to display the same characters, eg all  the first 6 or the last 6 for example.

    You can move the media to stand alone by selecting the first media in the NBU gui (left mouse click), hold down the shift key and select the last.  Right click and select move in the menu, then you will see an option to make it 'non-robotic'.

    Next, run robtest from the robot control host and run the command 's s'  - this will show the media in the robot incl. the barcodes of the tapes, make sure here that the barcode as displayed in robtest match what is in NBU, if not you need to change the settings on the library so that they do.

    Once done, make sure you have the same barcode rules and media id gen rules as previously, then run the inventory.

  • This is how I would do this:

    1. Move all media to Standalone (GUI can be used for this).
    2. Because the robot serial number will be different and drive postions wil not necessarily be exactly the same, delete all tape drives and the robot in NBU.
    3. Delete all devices (medium changer and tape drives) in Windows Device Manager. Perform a rescan to ensure OS can see the devices.
    4. Check that devices respond to scsi-commands with NBU 'scan' command.
    5. Use Device Config Wizard to add robot and tape drives.
    6. When doing Inventory, first check 'Show Contents' to see if robot reports all 8 characters or just last 6. If not the same as old robot, check robot config (as per Martin's post).

     

  • Correct - deleting a robot will move media to standalone.

    I just like to do that manually before deleting devices, but you can skip this step.
    I select all robotic media in the Media GUI, right-click, Move, then select standalone. 
    This will simply do a 'logical' move.

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  • Did you reconfigure the robot with another robot number in netbackup?

    if yes,

    you need to eject the tapes form form the old libraary in netbackup, ( moving them Robot contorl to standalone) and also remove tapes from OLD library to new Library 

    once that is done.. make sure you have valid media generation rules and barcode rules for new robot and update the tape information with Inventory.

  • Further to Nagalla advice ...

    Look at the barcodes you have already in the screens that show the media in NBU.

    Eg. AA1234L4

    You need to ensure that the new library is set to display the same characters, eg all  the first 6 or the last 6 for example.

    You can move the media to stand alone by selecting the first media in the NBU gui (left mouse click), hold down the shift key and select the last.  Right click and select move in the menu, then you will see an option to make it 'non-robotic'.

    Next, run robtest from the robot control host and run the command 's s'  - this will show the media in the robot incl. the barcodes of the tapes, make sure here that the barcode as displayed in robtest match what is in NBU, if not you need to change the settings on the library so that they do.

    Once done, make sure you have the same barcode rules and media id gen rules as previously, then run the inventory.

  • This is how I would do this:

    1. Move all media to Standalone (GUI can be used for this).
    2. Because the robot serial number will be different and drive postions wil not necessarily be exactly the same, delete all tape drives and the robot in NBU.
    3. Delete all devices (medium changer and tape drives) in Windows Device Manager. Perform a rescan to ensure OS can see the devices.
    4. Check that devices respond to scsi-commands with NBU 'scan' command.
    5. Use Device Config Wizard to add robot and tape drives.
    6. When doing Inventory, first check 'Show Contents' to see if robot reports all 8 characters or just last 6. If not the same as old robot, check robot config (as per Martin's post).

     

  • Thanks Everyone for your response. I have checked the new robot is responding in the same manner as the old one (with 8 characters). Luckily the model of the library is exactly the same.

    I will do as instructed. Marianne please advise how do i move all media to standalone. I believe deleting the robot will move them to standalone. please confirm.

  • Correct - deleting a robot will move media to standalone.

    I just like to do that manually before deleting devices, but you can skip this step.
    I select all robotic media in the Media GUI, right-click, Move, then select standalone. 
    This will simply do a 'logical' move.