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maxsven's avatar
maxsven
Level 4
12 years ago

Unable to associate a storage unit to a storage lifecycle policy

Hi,

I have a storage unit (StorageUnitA) that consists of one disk directly attached to a media server (Basic Disk). This storage unit is associated with a storage unit group Called "Storage_Pool_A".

I have another storage unit on the same media server but still not using it for anything.

I need to create a storage lifecycle policy and associate it with StorageUnitA, When I give the storage lifecycle policy a name and click "Add", I do not get the storage unit listed in the storage unit dropdown box. I'm also unable to type this manually. if I type OK, i get the error "Storage Unit Cannot be left blank. Please select storage unit".

Version is Netbackup 7.5.

Can someone please tell me what I'm missing here?

 

 

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  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    12 years ago

    Can someone though explain why this needed a "disk storage server" for the advanced disk pool?

    This has always been the case (since NBU 6.5) and documented in Admin Guide I and AdvancedDisk guide.

     

    Extract from Admin Guide I: 
    Disk (such as a file directory within a file system or a collection of disk
    volumes, either independent file systems or in an appliance).
    The administrator specifies the directory, volume, or disk pool during the
    storage unit setup. For BasicDisk, NetBackup sends the data to that directory
    during backups. For the Enterprise Disk Options, NetBackup sends the data
    to the storage server (the host that writes to the storage). Media Manager
    is not involved.
    For disk pool storage, the administrator first defines the storage server
    and (depending on the disk type) its logon credentials. Depending on disk
    type, the administrator may have to define logon credentials for the storage
    itself. The administrator also selects the disk volumes that comprise the
    disk pool. To create a storage unit, the administrator selects a disk pool
    and (depending on the disk type) selects the media server(s) to move the
    data.
     
     
    Maybe take some time to go through NetBackup AdvancedDisk Storage Solutions Guide
    You will also find steps on how to add disks to disk pool. Best to add a new disk pool and then merge with original.  

6 Replies

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  • maxsven's avatar
    maxsven
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Looks like I have found the answer myself, needed to create an advanced disk storage disk pool that uses an advanced disk storage unit. I was only able to create an advanced disk storage unit and storage pool by using the wizard "Configure Disk Storage Servers", not by selecting "New", Storage Unit at the storage unit console tree.

    Can someone though explain why this needed a "disk storage server" for the advanced disk pool?

    Also, need to know how I can add another drive to an exisiting storage unit on the same media server.

     

  • V4's avatar
    V4
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    You can add another disk to ADVANCE DISK UNIT only. For Basic i believe it has to be done at Storage level only within NBU there is no way to do unless to create new one. It is better to keep 1 STU per PHYSICAL HARD DISK (to get maximum read/write operations) Having multiple STU in different logical part would not be efficient to achieve performance

     

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Can someone though explain why this needed a "disk storage server" for the advanced disk pool?

    This has always been the case (since NBU 6.5) and documented in Admin Guide I and AdvancedDisk guide.

     

    Extract from Admin Guide I: 
    Disk (such as a file directory within a file system or a collection of disk
    volumes, either independent file systems or in an appliance).
    The administrator specifies the directory, volume, or disk pool during the
    storage unit setup. For BasicDisk, NetBackup sends the data to that directory
    during backups. For the Enterprise Disk Options, NetBackup sends the data
    to the storage server (the host that writes to the storage). Media Manager
    is not involved.
    For disk pool storage, the administrator first defines the storage server
    and (depending on the disk type) its logon credentials. Depending on disk
    type, the administrator may have to define logon credentials for the storage
    itself. The administrator also selects the disk volumes that comprise the
    disk pool. To create a storage unit, the administrator selects a disk pool
    and (depending on the disk type) selects the media server(s) to move the
    data.
     
     
    Maybe take some time to go through NetBackup AdvancedDisk Storage Solutions Guide
    You will also find steps on how to add disks to disk pool. Best to add a new disk pool and then merge with original.  
  • maxsven's avatar
    maxsven
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Hi,

    Thanks, I'm using advanced disks now, what I need to do is add another hard disk to an exisiting "Storage Unit".. I'm not looking at creating multiple storage units within one physical disks, that is for sure an I/O concern,, but multiple physical disks within a storage unit should not be an I/O concern, right?

     

     

     

  • RLeon's avatar
    RLeon
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    Please refer to these documents:

    Best practice for configuring AdvancedDisk:
      http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH158427

    NetBackup 7.5 AdvancedDisk Storage Solutions Guide:
      http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC5149

    About SLP and Disks:
    SLP does not work with BasicDisks. It has always been this way.
    Some choose to use AdvancedDisk and MSDP (deduplication) disks so that SLP can be used.
    I could only guess that one of the reason is that these non-BasicDisk disk tapes require the purchasing of Enterprise Disk/Dedup licenses.

     

    need to know how I can add another drive to an exisiting storage unit on the same media server.

    With AdvancedDisk, you can add additoinal volumes to an existing AdvancedDisk pool (Merging disk pools). Please refer to the above documents for details.

     

    Can someone though explain why this needed a "disk storage server" for the advanced disk pool?

    About the storage server paradigm, if you run the following command in admincmd:
      bpstsinfo -serverinfo

    Surprise! A BasicDisk is actually also managed by a BasicDisk Storage Server, just like other disk types. It is just that this secret storage server entity is hidden from view unless you type this command.
    So a BasicDisk still needs a storage server. In this sense, a BasicDisk is no different than other disk types.
    With BasicDisks, the storage server is automatically configured for you when you create a BasicDisk Storage Unit.