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Kirk-D's avatar
Kirk-D
Level 2
10 years ago

Unload delayed tapes for rotation?

Thanks for any ideas you may have...

Using Netbackup 7.6 with a single library (2 drives).

Recently decided to increase the tape unload delay to 30 minutes to eliminate load/unload inbetween our SQL transaction log backups which are at 30 minute intervals.  Works perfect, except when it comes time to remove tapes from the library for off-site storage.

Between jobs, I'd like to be able to send a command to the library to unload the drives and return the tapes to their slots. After that I would be able to eject and import.  The nxt time the SQL policy job starts, it would load the new tapes.

I saw a post from Marianne that indicated you could use 'Reset', but that comes back with 'Drive is assigned'.  
Short of shutting down BP services, is there any way to command and unload?

Thanks,
Kirk

7.6
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup
Tip-How to
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    10 years ago
    30 minutes is a very long time for unmount delay. Have you considered adding staging disk for small, 30-minute backups?

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  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    10 years ago
    30 minutes is a very long time for unmount delay. Have you considered adding staging disk for small, 30-minute backups?
  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    OS of robot control host?  Windows?  RHEL?  Solaris?  Other?

    A stab in the dark here, as I have never tried to do what you want.  I can see a command called "tpunmount" in the commands ref guide but not sure if that'll help, and then there is always a variant of 'robtest', or more effectively echo a robotic command to tldtest, e.g.:

    echo "s d" | tldtest -r /dev/sg99

    ...but issue a "m dN sN" instead, but your script would have to work out which drive number and which slot number... and you'd have to re-inventory the robot... and what about any left over SCSI reservations...

    ...and quite what NBRB will make of you forcefully ejecting media underneath and out of site of NetBackup.... hmmm... could be taking a risk with this.

    The more I think about this, the less I like it.

  • Kirk-D's avatar
    Kirk-D
    Level 2
    10 years ago

    Hi Marianne,

    I'm with you on staging this, but disk space is tight for this specific Master Server which is being migrated out for another server.  The newer server has an Open Storage array so, everything gets an SLP on that server.    Very Nice.   I'll find a disk somewhere and go with a staging schedule.

    P.S.  Thanks for all your posts.  I've learned alot from you!!

     

    SDO,

    Sorry, I'm running Windows...   I looked at the tpunmount command, but it won't work either, as it is file specific, not drive specific.
    I was mainly looking for a simple way to bypass the in effect tape unload delay from within the GUI.
    I can probably script out a file to shutdown the Media Manager and then send a command directly to the library, but I think I'll find some disk space and set it up for staging.

    Regards,

    Kirk

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    I still feel that the unmount delay is too high, causing other issues with drives staying reserved unnecessary .

    NBU creates a tpmount file in the background which will be removed when NBU releases the drive after 30 minutes. So, while a reset of the drive may work, the device allocation in the resource broker will probably not be cleared .

    Try 'nbrbutil -dump' to find the device allocations , followed by clearing them.

    Or even release all device allocations with nbrbutil -ResetAll.

    (Not too sure about the option as I do not have access to manuals at the moment .)