BE 2010 R2 - All Device Pool devices appear online instead of just the 1...;

[Edward_Charles]

We've created a device pool with about 6 SATA drives (1 for each weekday) we rotate which has been working well until now.

Until now it would only show the drive online that was actually inserted and physically online that day, all others were offline which makes sense.

Now the problem is all 6 drives appear online even though only 1 of them is actually inserted. Then when I restarted the services it actually created the B2D folders for all the 6  devices on that 1 drive because they all "appear online" I guess.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Ken_Putnam]

This sounds similar to a problem reported a couple of months ago, but I can't find the thread.  Colin had a suggestion for that one

I'll set the support flag for this thread to call it to the attention of the Symantec folks

[Edward_Charles]

Ok thank you, we'll keep monitoring this post.

Regards,

[Ken_Putnam]

Are you running R2 or R3 or just 2010?

R2 introduced major enhancements in the way that it handled external drives, so if you are not already at R3, you might start by downloading that

See http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH159557

How to: Direct upgrade path from Backup Exec 11d/12.0/12.5/2010/2010 R2 for Windows Servers to Backup Exec 2010 R3

(R3 should accept your 2010 serials)
 

[Edward_Charles]

Hi Ken,

As the post states in the subject line we're running 2010 R2. We're aware of the R2 enhancements, specifically in rotating drives.

R3 just came out yes and we could upgrade to it if nothing else works but if that were required wouldn't it be a known issue then in R2?

[pkh]

This is a known problem.  See Colin Weaver's reply to my article and the two references, a discussion and an article.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-rotate-external-harddisks#comment-5359411

[Edward_Charles]

Thanks PKH.

I checked out that discussion post which I had seen before and even posted on as well before this article was posted from Colin: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH155949

That article does describe the issue which doesn't only apply to USB disks but also the larger SATA hard drives we need to change out daily. It automatically creates those other B2D folders yes which isn't so bad by itself but the problem is our jobs kept hanging in queue state as well and only was able to make it work when running the job directly to the device instead of via the pool. We haven't been able to make the devices offline that aren't connected which is the real problem I think.

Can you please confirm what Symantec's resolution for this is? A hotfix or has R3 addressed this problem? We were all exited on how well the device pool devices worked in R2 (vs using the removable B2D folders which wasn't recommended for swapping out SATA drives) and the proper overwriting of the IMG folders which is what started this whole journey for us. Now after about it working for about 2 weeks it stopped working properly.

Thank you

[pkh]

The problem resolution status is as stated in the document.

Have you tried deleting and then recreating the device pool?

[Edward_Charles]

Thank you for the replies.

I checked the document/article and I guess there simply isn't a resolution for this issue yet correct? Is there an ETA for that or we just keep waiting until there is another live update/hotfix released after we install R3?

We'll recreate the device pool (hopefully that doesn't affect the overwriting of all the drives) and see if that (temporarily) resolves it.

Thanks

[Edward_Charles]

Ok, we actually just recreated the Device Pool but this made no difference. Which makes sense because when I added all the 6 devices back in again these drives' status haven't changed and they still show online. I might have to recreate the actual B2D device for it to become offline but how to you recreate one if the device isn't online...

Thanks

[pkh]

I noticed from your other discussion that you might be using removable B2D folders for your USB disks.  You should be using normal B2D folders.  Removable B2D folders are meant for things like RDX and Jaz drives.

[Edward_Charles]

Thanks, we actually are using the normal B2D folders but yes we used to use the removable ones for our SATA removable drives which worked ok as well.

So no we are using the normal B2D folders and added them to the device pool which unfortunately isn't working properly.

We'll try upgrading to R3 and hoping it'll address this issue.

Regards,

[Edward_Charles]

Update, we just upgrade to R3 with all the live updates but so far I haven't seen any different behaviour (compared to R2) and the Device Pool still makes all devices online vs just the one that's actually online... As mentioned it then creates all the extra B2D folders automatically and of course then that actual path becomes online. The problem then is when running a job to that device pool it stays in queud mode because I guess it doesn't know which path to backup to since all are avaible??

Please help, does Symantec have a solution/work around coming?

Thank you

[Edward_Charles]

Please, any update on this would be appreciated as we're currently not able to use the device pools...

Thanks

[pkh]

What if you unplug all your devices and manually set all the devices in the pool off-line?  When you next plug in a device, BE should automatically set it to on-line so it would be the only one that is online.  When you unplug the device, BE should automatically set it offline again.  This way you would have only 1 device online at a time.

[Edward_Charles]

Thanks for your reply.

The problems is how do you mark a device as offline? I don't see that option. What you describe is how it used to work for about the first week or so and now it keeps creating all the devices' folders on any drive at which point the B2D device path becomes online so BE thinks it's online. I can manually delete all these folders again except the 1 correct folder for the drive that's inserted but I then still cannot mark the others as offline.

We're running the latest version of R3 now as was recommended but this issue is still not revoled.

Thank you for your help. Is Symantec aware of this problem and/or can provide a work around please??

[Ken_Putnam]

Have you tried the workaround of creating a file with the same name as the other devices in the pool as documented in

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH155949
 

[Edward_Charles]

Hi Ken,

Ok, I've just done this work around procedure on the 1 drive that's inserted and restarted the BE services after and yes they now all appear offline except for the actual one that needs to be online so that looks good.

I understand we'll have to do this as each drive gets inserted throughout the week until all are done.

We're still curious if Symantec is working on this known issue and when we can expect a proper fix?

Thank you.

[Ken_Putnam]

We're still curious if Symantec is working on this known issue and when we can expect a proper fix?

My only response is to quote the bottom of the article

"This issue is currently under investigation by Symantec Corporation. Pending the outcome of the investigation, this issue may be resolved by way of a patch or hotfix in current or future revisions of the software. However, this particular issue is not currently scheduled for any release.  If you feel this issue has a direct business impact for you and your continued use of the product, please contact your Symantec Sales representative or the Symantec Sales group to discuss these concerns.  For information on how to contact Symantec Sales, please see  http://www.symantec.com Please be sure to refer back to this document periodically as any changes to the status of the issue will be reflected here."
 

[Edward_Charles]

Ok, thanks Ken, I saw that but wasn't sure how up to date that article is. So I guess the only way to find out if it's resolved is to check this article once a week? and/or run the BE Live updates to see if a new patch is released?

Thank you.