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I've got 4 drives, but I can't wirte on 4 drives at the same time

Boris_K1
Level 4

Hello,

I've got netbackup 7.0 and a tape library HP MSL 4048. There are 4 drives. All the drives a ready (library webinterface) and up (netbackup). But each time when I start the backup it never write on more than 2 drives... And it's never the same drives.
The thing is I would like to increase the speed, because it takes to much time to backup all our server. That's why I would like to be able to write on 4 concurrent drives.
There are 7 policies. All the jobs start nearly at the same time, and most of them stay in a queued state (until some other jobs finished), but in the other side I still have two available drives.
If someone got an idea, to force the write on 4 drives it will be a great help for me.

ps: max concurrent drives is set to 4

ps2 : and sorry for my poor english :)

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
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All configuration seems to be correct. The only other thing I can think of is 'orphaned' device allocations in the Resource Broker.

Please run (from admincmd):

nbrbutil -dump

(best to send output to a text file, e.g. 'nbrbutil -dump > C:\Temp\dump.txt)

Scroll towards end of output file and find :

MDS allocations in EMM:

Look for tape drive allocations starting with:

'MdsAllocation'

Reference: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH47778

(This TN is for media, but the principal is the same.)

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16 REPLIES 16

donbu
Not applicable

On your storage unit, check "concurrent jobs" setting also.

nairdheeraj
Level 4

Have you set multiplexing for your tape storage unit, if so what is the value set to. What is current state of the drives (TLH/AVR/TLD) etc . You can use "vmoprcmd -d" that will show the status of the drives.

Also you had mentioned that you have initiated 7 policies, just wanted to know if the 7 policies are backing up two clients or more. May be you have set the value for number of jobs per client to "1".

Ray_Esperanzate
Level 4

In addition to the multiplexing setting on the storage unit as suggested before, you should check the multiplexing setting on the schedule in your policies.  If you have the multiplex number set too high, you'll be limited to fewer tape drives.

Boris_K1
Level 4

In first thank you for your help.

-In storage unit : the number of concurrent write drive is set to "4".

-For the tape storage unit the multiplexing has been enable and it's set to "2".

And the drives are TLD. When you say that I can use "vmoprcmd -d", where can I use this command ???

The 7 policies backup around 10 different servers, and the multiplexing on the policies is set to 2.

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Boris_K1
Level 4

I already tried to set multiplexing to "4" on the policies & on the storage unit, but changed nothing.

Even if I launch 4 manual backups, of 4 different clients, with no multiplexing and no data stream, it writes only on 2 drives, and two jobs stay in queued state.

Do you think the problem could come from the SCSI controller ??? I've got two SCSI cards, so I plug each drive directly to the cards...  The drives aren't chained.

RiaanBadenhorst
Moderator
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Hi,

 

INSTALL_PATH\volmgr\bin\vmoprcmd -d

INSTALL_PATH\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpstulist -U

 

Paste the output and a description of your policy please (clients , selections, general)

 

 

Marianne
Moderator
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In addition to info requested above, please also check Max Jobs per Client in Host Properties -> Global Attributes. The default is 1.

Also check Details for a queued job - the reason for it being queued will be listed there.

nairdheeraj
Level 4

Can you try a manual load of tape into one of the drives.. You can use robtest for this. Since you mentioned the drives aren't chained.. how are the remaining two drives connected and where is the SCSI getting terminated.

Also when you scan for your tape drives are you able to see all four of them.

Boris_K1
Level 4

I only put screenshot for database1, because all the other policy has the same configuration, except policy H-drive and I-Drive, but I also put an example of that one.

 

To give you some more information:  I drive and H drive it's our filer (so the main data storage).

 

All the remaining policies are not so big, we just backup windows shadow component and windows state.

 

Thank you.

Marianne
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Have you checked Max Jobs per Client? As well as reason for queued status in Details tab?

Boris_K1
Level 4

Hello Marianne!

 

I just check Max job per client, and in fact the client wasn't in the list.. I just added it, keep it as default (so "1"), and I manually launched again the job, but it did the same thing.

Orelse the reason of a queued job is "awaiting ressources from library.. no drives are available"

Marianne
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I don't see output of Storage Unit config in the screendumps?

INSTALL_PATH\netbackup\bin\admincmd\bpstulist -U

Ajju
Level 4

Can you confirm the no of drive license do you have?

Boris_K1
Level 4

Marianne, here it is.

 

Ajju I totally don't know if got enough licence for the drive. It's a good question. I'll investigate.

Marianne
Moderator
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All configuration seems to be correct. The only other thing I can think of is 'orphaned' device allocations in the Resource Broker.

Please run (from admincmd):

nbrbutil -dump

(best to send output to a text file, e.g. 'nbrbutil -dump > C:\Temp\dump.txt)

Scroll towards end of output file and find :

MDS allocations in EMM:

Look for tape drive allocations starting with:

'MdsAllocation'

Reference: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH47778

(This TN is for media, but the principal is the same.)

Boris_K1
Level 4

I would like to thank you for your help. I did what you said regarding the "MDS allocations in EMM" (Reference: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?pag...) and now it works, the 4 drives run at the same time.

So thank you again ! and again ! :)

 

Boris.