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Mike_Gavrilov
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Good news, everyone! (c) Starting from NetBackup 8.1.2 we can use persistent binding on Linux platform. Release Notes says:

Starting with NetBackup 8.1.2, the NetBackup Device Manager (ltid) uses persistent device paths for tape drives. Instead of /dev/nstXXX device paths, NetBackup uses /dev/tape/by-path/YYY-nst device paths. The paths persist across SAN interruptions. Upon NetBackup Device Manager (ltid) startup, /dev/nstXXX paths are converted to the equivalent /dev/tape/by-path/YYY-nst path.

Recently I had pretty big installation with different hardware and I had some feedback that might be useful for others.

Unfortunately, persistent binding works correctly out of the box for FC drives only.

It isn't because of NetBackup but it's because of default Linux udev rule and SAS connected Tape Libraries specialty. By default the rule's part we're interested in (60-persistent-storage-tape.rules) looks like:

 

# by-path (parent device path)
KERNEL=="st*[0-9]|nst*[0-9]", IMPORT{builtin}="path_id"
KERNEL=="st*[0-9]", ENV{ID_PATH}=="?*", SYMLINK+="tape/by-path/$env{ID_PATH}"
KERNEL=="nst*[0-9]", ENV{ID_PATH}=="?*", SYMLINK+="tape/by-path/$env{ID_PATH}-nst"

The main thing you should know it that symlink will be created using ID_PATH value. It's easy to get this value manually:

 

  # udevadm info -n /dev/nst0 | grep ID_PATH 
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_12_00_0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0

 

It works fine for FC connected drives because their paths are unique:

# ls -la /dev/tape/by-path/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 280 Dec 19 12:33 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root  80 Dec 19 12:28 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0 -> ../../st0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst                   0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc56a-lun-0 -> ../../st2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc56a-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst                   2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:33 pci-0000:12:00.1-fc-0x50012345678cc566-lun-0 -> ../../st4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:33 pci-0000:12:00.1-fc-0x50012345678cc566-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst                   4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0 -> ../../st1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc567-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst                   1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc56a-lun-0 -> ../../st3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:28 pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50012345678cc56a-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst                   3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Dec 19 12:33 pci-0000:d8:00.1-fc-0x50012345678cc566-lun-0 -> ../../st5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  10 Dec 19 12:33 pci-0000:d8:00.1-fc-0x50012345678cc566-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst 

and tpautoconf shows correct information (drives are available via multiple paths):

 # /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/tpautoconf -t
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGV -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:d8:00.1-fc-0x50                   012345678cc566-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGV -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:12:00.1-fc-0x50                   012345678cc566-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGW -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50                   012345678cc56a-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGW -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50                   012345678cc56a-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGV -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:d8:00.0-fc-0x50                   02345678cc567-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000VGV -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:12:00.0-fc-0x50                   012345678cc567-lun-0-nst - -

But when we're working with SAS connected drives we might have some problems. For example after adding Tape Library via SAS we have symlinks: 

# ls -la /dev/tape/by-path/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Dec  6 13:41 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 80 Dec  6 13:41 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Dec  6 13:41 pci-0000:12:00.0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0 -> ../../st1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec  6 13:41 pci-0000:12:00.0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0-nst -> ../../nst1

but when we check configuration we'll see one drive that has no symlinks:

 # /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/tpautoconf -t
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000PH9 -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/pci-0000:12:00.0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE     Ultrium 8-SCSI  J4DB CZ00000CVY -1 -1 -1 -1 - - -

We have two drives indeed:

# ls -la /dev/nst?
crw------- 1 root tape 9, 128 Dec 21 02:42 /dev/nst0
crw------- 1 root tape 9, 129 Dec 21 02:42 /dev/nst1

Let's check their ID_PATHs:

 # udevadm info -n /dev/nst0 | grep ID_PATH
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:12:00.0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_12_00_0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0

 # udevadm info -n /dev/nst1 | grep ID_PATH
E: ID_PATH=pci-0000:12:00.0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=pci-0000_12_00_0-sas-0x0000000000000000-lun-0

They are identical. That's why udev can't create two different symlinks and NBU can't configure two different drives.

We need to modify the default udev rule (or create a new custome one because during the upgrade default udev rules might be overwritten) to have different values for different drives. The easiest way you can do it is to use:

# by-path (parent device path)
KERNEL=="st*[0-9]|nst*[0-9]", IMPORT{builtin}="path_id"
KERNEL=="st*[0-9]", ENV{ID_PATH}=="?*", SYMLINK+="tape/by-path/$env{ID_SCSI_SERIAL}"
KERNEL=="nst*[0-9]", ENV{ID_PATH}=="?*", SYMLINK+="tape/by-path/$env{ID_SCSI_SERIAL}-nst"

but it isn't a universal solutions and it depends on the Tape Library you're using.

In my case I had different TapeLibraries and some of then presented all drives via multiple paths and I had to use minor numbers because it was the only unique value (I didn't have enough time for deep investigation because the TLs were on the remote site). It isn't the best thing to use because after reboot minor name can be different but in some cases you have no choice: 

# by-path (parent device path)
KERNEL=="st*[0-9]|nst*[0-9]", IMPORT{builtin}="path_id"
KERNEL=="nst*[0-9]", ENV{ID_PATH}=="?*", SYMLINK+="tape/by-path/$env{MINOR}-nst"

after that you need to re-apply udev rules:

# udevadm trigger

now both synlinks are in place:

# ls -la /dev/tape/by-path/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 21 02:42 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 80 Dec  6 13:41 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 21 02:42 128-nst -> ../../nst0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 21 02:42 129-nst -> ../../nst1

 and we can check if both drives can be configured correctly:

# /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/tpautoconf -t 
TPAC60 HPE Ultrium 8-SCSI J4DB CZ00000PH9 -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/129-nst - -
TPAC60 HPE Ultrium 8-SCSI J4DB CZ00020CVY -1 -1 -1 -1 /dev/tape/by-path/128-nst - -

Hope it helps.

Version history
Last update:
‎12-23-2018 01:39 AM
Updated by:
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