Netbackup Error 297 and more

[NiklasV]

Hi, i recently started at a company and had to take over the Netbackup role. Never used this product before but well they wanted me to take over so im trying my best here.

The issue is that our robot decided to get the error 297 and i understood by reading that the solution is quite simple, remove the disc and readd it.

The issue is i followed some instuction that said i should go to
NetBackup Administration Console > Media and Device managment > Devices > Drives and remove it from there and readd it

The issue is that in Media and Device management the robot doesnt find the Device anymore and i have no clue how to readd it


Any tips?

If you need certain information give me a poke and i will look if i can find the correct information

Version 7.5 on Netbackup

Server 2003

Regards Niklas

[Marianne]

Not sure why you went this far as status 297 does not seem to be serious.
Nothing to do with 'disc' or devices, but with tapes (media).

Extract from Status Guide manual:

NetBackup status code: 297

Message: all volumes are not available to eject
Explanation: This error occurs when an try is made to eject a non-existent or bad
media ID during the eject phase of the following: a Vault session, a vlteject
command, or a vltopmenu command.

Possible reasons for this error are as follows:
■ The bad media ID was added by means of the vlt_ejectlist_notify script.
■ The bad media ID is already in the MAP or not in the robotic library.
■ The bad media ID is in a robotic drive.
■ The bad media ID is in transit in the robotic library.

Recommended Action: Remove or correct the defective media ID from the
vlt_ejectlist_notify script and rerun the Vault session. If the bad media ID is
in the MAP or a drive or in transit, something is misconfigured.

Are there any hardware related errors in Windows Event Viewer?

Is Windows Removable Storage Manager service stopped and disabled?

Can the Windows Device Manager see the robot?

(Best to delete existing Medium Changer and Tape Drives, then rescan to ensure correct info is seen at OS level.)

If devices are not seen in Device Manager, you need to check the robot display panel for errors and also physical connection.
Try to reboot the robot.

If Device Manager sees the devices, see if they respond to scsi_commands.
From cmd, cd to <install-path>\veritas\volmgr\bin.
Run 'scan' command.

If nothing is displayed, there is something wrong with the hardware - either connection or devices.
Log a call with your hardware support team.

Only when 'scan' reports the robot and tape drive(s) should you add the devices back in NBU.
Start the Device Config Wizard in the main section of the GUI.

PS: 
You (and your management) are hopefully aware that Microsoft will shortly be ending W2003 support?

[Marianne]

Thanks for the detailed info 4 days later.

Your opening post did not include the error message. 
Unkown drive name (297)

There are different status codes for NBU, Media Manager , Device Configuration, Robotic Status codes, robotic error codes.

[NiklasV]

Sorry, was sadly gone without possiblity of a computer close by

[NiklasV]

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.TECH160255.html
 

As the firmware has been updated, the drive will need to be deleted and re-added into NetBackup.

according to the support file thats why i did as i did

Issue began that we had a No Pathing issue and i noticed in the event viewver in Windows that we had some hardware issues, so i called in the Support ( procedures ) and we found out that we had some Hardware issues in one of the tapes.
This issue is resolved and then we did a Firmware update thats when we started to get the error message
Quote from the article:
After upgrading the tape drive firmware, the drives remain in a DOWN state in Netbackup. Attempting to UP the drive returns the following error

Unkown drive name (297)

Thats when i tried to delete the drive NetBackup Administration Console > Media and Device managment > Devices > Drives and remove it from there and readd it

Im a complete novice with Netbackup so im not sure if i have even searched the correct error data bases, but its spoton with our error message, sorry if i didnt clarify it as im not to sure what information to give out yet.

About the Windows Server 2003 we are going to upgrade it at the end of summer but thanks for the warning :)

Regards.

[mph999]

OK, how many robots do you have and how many drivs ?

Are these drives shared between media servers.

Running vmoprmcd command will show this, it is in the <install path>\veritas\volmgr\bin directory - run this command on the master and add the output as an attachment to this thread.

Ideally, run nbsu -c -t

cd <install path>\veritas\netbackup\bin\support

Run the command above, the output is put into the output dir, have a look in there and collect the output for the date you ran the command (could be more than one output in there if it has been run in the past).

Also, check in windows device manager that the OS sees all the drives - this is vital.

If it's a simple setup (eg one robot and not shared across more than a few media servers) I would personnally just delete everything and reconfigure, but this is dependant on the OS of each media server seeing all the devices (drives) correctly.

[NiklasV]

Only one Drive for now, we will get a replacement drive in a few work days as a replacement we got one Robot i will run the command tomorrow as im at another client for the rest of the day.

Reconfiging is a option according to my supervisor at this company if needed but i will fill in with more information tomorrow when im back at the company.

 

[Marianne]

Apart from Status Code extract for NBU status code 297, the rest of my post regarding devices is still applicable (that is actually what I typed up initially and afterwards looked at the NBU Status Code manual) :

Are there any hardware related errors in Windows Event Viewer?

Is Windows Removable Storage Manager service stopped and disabled?

Can the Windows Device Manager see the robot?

(Best to delete existing Medium Changer and Tape Drives, then rescan to ensure correct info is seen at OS level.)

If devices are not seen in Device Manager, you need to check the robot display panel for errors and also physical connection.
Try to reboot the robot.

If Device Manager sees the devices, see if they respond to scsi_commands.
From cmd, cd to <install-path>\veritas\volmgr\bin.
Run 'scan' command.

If nothing is displayed, there is something wrong with the hardware - either connection or devices.
Log a call with your hardware support team.

Only when 'scan' reports the robot and tape drive(s) should you add the devices back in NBU.
Start the Device Config Wizard in the main section of the GUI.

[NiklasV]

Update
mph999:
i ran run nbsu -c -t in the correct path and recieved alot of information, been reading throu most of the logs not entirely sure what to look for exact but i can't spot any specific errors

Windows Device manager: I Can see the Medium Charger and the Tape device

The Design is quite simple that we got Robot connected to the backup server, no media or anything else so its quite simple.

Marianne:

No hardware related errors in Event Viewer

Windows Removable Storage manager service is stopped and disabled, we also Shutdown the server + Robot after this, rebooted the robot so it initialize before starting the server again

Robot shows up in Device manager

Scan command shows information about both robot and tape drive
In the Netbackup Admin console it still shows the Robot however with two drives that got the text
[Unused element address]

[Marianne]

Please show us output of scan command. Unused element sounds like a problem with robot config. On some robots, update of drive firmware will also need firmware upgrade of the library, followed by complete power cycle.

[NiklasV]

************************************************************
*********************** SDT_TAPE    ************************
*********************** SDT_CHANGER ************************
************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------
Device Name  : "Changer0"
Passthru Name: "Changer0"
Volume Header: ""
Port: 3; Bus: 0; Target: 0; LUN: 1
Inquiry    : "IBM     3573-TL         C.30"
Vendor ID  : "IBM     "
Product ID : "3573-TL         "
Product Rev: "C.30"
Serial Number: "00X4U78B4508_LL0"
WWN          : ""
WWN Id Type  : 0
Device Identifier: "IBM     3573-TL         00X4U78B4508_LL0"
Device Type    : SDT_CHANGER
NetBackup Robot Type: 8
Removable      : Yes
Device Supports: SCSI-5
Number of Drives : 2
Number of Slots  : 43
Number of Media Access Ports: 3
Drive 1 Serial Number      : "1210390426"
Drive 2 Serial Number      : "1210390426"
Flags : 0x0
Reason: 0x0
 

[mph999]

OK, that scan output is for the changer/ robot only.   Its  bit confusing at first, as although you do see the tape drives, this is showing the robot knows about the tapes, but scan is not showing the actiual tape drives themselves - there should be entries like this:

OK, this is from Unix, so the path is a bit different than windows, but the rest is similar ...

See how the Product ID shows it is a tape drive ...

Device Name  : "/dev/rmt/0cbn"
Passthru Name: "/dev/sg/c1t3l0"
Volume Header: ""
Port: -1; Bus: -1; Target: -1; LUN: -1
Inquiry    : "HP      Ultrium 1-SCSI  E38W"
Vendor ID  : "HP      "
Product ID : "Ultrium 1-SCSI  "
Product Rev: "E38W"
Serial Number: "HU74D01591"
WWN          : ""
WWN Id Type  : 0
Device Identifier: "HP      Ultrium 1-SCSI  HU74D01591"
Device Type    : SDT_TAPE
NetBackup Drive Type: 3
Removable      : Yes
Device Supports: SCSI-3
Flags : 0x0
Reason: 0x0

So in summary, you should have a set of information for each drive (like the above) and the robot.  You only have the robot which shows that drives are either not seen properly by the OS, or they are not reposnding to the scsi commands that scan sends.  This can be caused by OS issues, firmware issues, driver issues, zoning issues, HBA issues etc ...

Unfortunately, there is no settings in NBU that can affect this as scan runs independantly and has no tuning.

NOTE.  I resume you ran 'scan' and not ''sc'an -changer'  ? 

scan is the command we want.

[Marianne]

My reaction is the same as Martin's. scan sees the robot only. The robot can see 2 tape drives on the control path (internal connection ), but the tape drives are not responding to scsi_commands on data path level. Did you delete the tape drives in Device Manager and re scanned as suggested earlier? Was everything rebooted (robot and backup server ) after the upgrade? Best to power cycle robot first, then the server.

[NiklasV]

With the Rescanning part how do i do that, i checked our conversation higher up and cant find how to, also i think im slightly lost and im sorry for that.

my Tape Driver is empty under Device manager in the netbackup Admin GUI however i didnt readd it as i cant find out how

also i did the Scan command and now the scan -changer and the information is the same today, wanted to see if there was any slight change

i did another Power cycle on the robot today and the server but nothing different have happened.

Since i misunderstood the scan command line and though it showed the necessary information. i want to verify that i see the correct information in Computer managment also in Device Manager

Medium Changers
- IBM TotalStorage 3573 Tape Library

Tape Drivers
- IBM ULT3580-TD3 SCSI Sequential Device.

I wish i had some prewarning that Netbackup was required before i started at this work since i feel slightly like a burden towards you people also for some of my troubleshooting/misses

Any other information i can doublecheck?

Extra information i will be here for around 2 more hours then im comming back at monday so this thread will get updated before i leave or monday

[Marianne]

Forget about NBU for now.

There seems to be comms issue between OS and tape devices.

Go to Windows Device Manager.
Find the tape drives and delete them.

Next, right-click on computer name at the top of the screen and select 'Scan for harware changes'.

Do the tape drives come back?

If so, check which driver is installed for the tape drives.
It should be latest available driver from the tape vendor's web site.

scan -changer will only show robot info.

You need to run 
scan 
or 
scan -tape

to see tape info.

Only when scan shows the tape drives can we try NBU config again.

[NiklasV]

Deleted the tape driver in Windows Device man and rescanned it now.

IBM ULT3580 shows up under Other Devices with an ? i will try to find the drivers and hopefully connect to my boss who works at home today, since there is quite many restictions on whats possible to install on the server. Hopefully we can get access for it today.

Not to sure if i find the correct Drivers/firmware.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S4000055
I Assume this last one if for medium changers so its not needed.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21193425

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

IBM ULT3580 shows up under Other Devices with an ?

This is because no driver is loaded for the tape drive.

The link you have posted above is for firmware.

Search IBM site for drivers.

Try this:

http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/quickorder?parent=ibm~ST~Tapedevicedriversandsoftware&...

[NiklasV]

Back at the office, we are still on the update process, since me and my supervisor havent been here we havent been able to update my supervisor will appear later during the day but since we have a 2003 server we will download the Archieve part

We need the 32 bits however so i will update when i got them installed.

edit: found the 32 bit
 

[Marianne]

Symantec's 32-bit tape driver also works well.

[NiklasV]

Whats the difference between install_Exclusive and install_nonexclusive

( Sorry if some of my questions are abit stupid )