Can you have LTO2, LTO3, LTO4 and LTO5 drives in same Netbackup 7.1 configuration??

[Pam_Daniel]

We currently have a Netbackup 7.1.0.4 environment running on Windows 2008 R2.  We have an SL8500 tape library with ACSLS.   We currently have LTO2, LTO3, and LTO4 drives in the library and are trying to add LTO5.

The current setup is....

LTO2 - hcart2

LTO3 - hcart3

LTO4 - hcart

How can we add the LTO5 tape drives if there isn't another LTO option?  Can we use hcart2 and not have isses with tapes being frozen because it tries to pull the wrong tape from the scratch pool?  We thought we could use DLT but can't figure out how to change the media mappings to force the LTO5 tapes to be seen as DLT.  

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Pam

[Nicolai]

You need to apply a media mapping  because ACSLS will report the density type to Netbackup as well. So ensure you use the right barcodes indicating LTO5.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO86005

Let me dig up some more documentation

Update:

Found this one - I think this is what you need:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH155814

Also consult the Netbackup Administrator guide volume 1 page 445

Netbackup Administrator guide volume 2  page 82 

Update 2: Seems you need to apply a vm.conf setting before media mappings work for ACSLS

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO94180

[Marianne]

Thumbs-up to Nicolai for remembering about ACSLS mappings.

From NBU point of view, you will have to manually change drive/device type for LTO5 and add barcode rules for different media types.
See http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH75821 

You may also want to vote for Martin's idea: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/ideas/update-netbackup-media-drive-density-types

[Pam_Daniel]

Do you know if the barcode setting in the vm.conf will override the setting in 'Media type mappings' under the Advanced Robot inventory options?

I made the change to one of my media servers vm.conf files, ran bprdreq -rereadconfig  and ran the inventory using that media server and it's still using the entries from 'Media Type Mappings'.  There is no way to change the Media Type mappings in the gui to anything but the LTO setttings.  I'm trying to make everything DLT.  This is the entry I put in the vm.conf

ACS_LTO_1.5T = DLT

[Nicolai · Accepted solution]

Take a look here : 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO66329

According to the T/N you need to use LTO_1_5T. Unfortunately is also say you are only allowed to map that media type to HCART, HCART2, HCART3 

That kind of kill the plan .....

[Pam_Daniel]

Thanks Nicolai!  That's what I was afraid of!  Looks like we are being forced to get rid of our LTO2 drives.  Would have been nice to keep them around while we moved things over from LTO2.  I am going to test to see if I can inventory the tapes to go to specific volume pools so we can at least transition over.  It will probably be an issue if we run out of either LTO2 or LTO5 scratches I would think.

Do you think it will try to load LTO2 tapes on the LTO2 drives if we run out of LTO5 scratches - if they are both configured as hcart2 and vice versa?

[Nicolai]

If both LTO2 and LTO5 is configured as HCART you have a change of a mix up where wrong media is being mounted on the wrong drives. I would not go down that path - big change for large number of frozen tapes.

I have a suggestion to a workaround - it goes like this:

You re-assign all LTO2 media to one media server - and ensure it got LTO2 drives. it can't have LTO5. Then you configure ACSLS to use volume access control so the media server having LTO2 only see the barcode series being LTO2.  Then both LTO2 and LTO5 can be HCART2 but Netbackup shoud not mount a media the server can see. Test it out. 

How to configure ACSLS volume control

http://www.mass.dk/netbackup/guides/61-acsls-volume-access-control.html

[Pam_Daniel]

That does sound like a good idea.  I'm kinda leery on messing with ACSLS but I'm going to check it out.  We have over 2000 LTO2 tapes which are assigned so that is going to be painful.  Do you have any recommendations on how to re-assign them with less pain?

Support keeps telling us to configure them as Hcart2 but I knew that wasn't going to work.  We did what they said and sent them the results which is LTO2 drives trying to mount LTO5 tapes.  It doesn't make sense they have not added more hcart options in the newer versions of Netbackup.

Thanks again!

[mph999]

Yes, more hcart options would be nice.

However, don;t forget that the density is only a label to match a tape with a drive - there is no technical meaning, so if you marked hcart6 drives as 4mm, providing the drives were marked 4mm it would work fine - with no decrease in performance or capacity.

As I always say, using colours would be good, geen tape / green drive - easy ...

[Nicolai]

Hi Martin.

The problem here is ACSLS providing a media type to Netbackup and the media type can only be mapped to HCART,HCART2 and HCART3.

If the robot was under TLD control you are right.

[Marianne]

Mmmm... I thought that these mappings could be changed as per HOWTO86005, but  http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO85962 indeed shows Allowable media types through mappings as HCART, HCART2, HCART3 only.

[Nicolai]

HOWTO86005 follow HOWTO85962. It matches :)

[mph999]

Ahh, thanks Nicolai - didn't know that, as they say, you learn something everyday ...

[Marianne]

Seems Nicolai's suggestion over here is the only workable solution:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/can-you-have-lto2-lto3-lto4-and-lto5-drives-same-netb... 

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