Rename device Drive Name in Netbackup 7.6.0.1 to align with Robot Drive Numbers

[BreezeWJ]

I have a question,

I have 6 tape drives and the Device names are not the same as the Robot Drive Number. I would like to simply rename the Drive name so Tape drives in the robot align with the Device name.

For example From Devices\Drives\ Right Click> Change Tape Drives
 YC_LT05_000 _Currently shows Robot Drive as (2)  and YC_LT05_002  has Robot drive (6) 

Want to rename the drive names > YC_LT05_000 to 006 and LT05_002 ((2) same as Robot drive. etc.

tpconfig -l
Device     Robot   Drive            Robot                                        Drive          Device
Type         Num    Index  Type  DrNum   Status  Comment         Name           Path

         robot           0    -    TLD    -       -  -          -                                        {0,0,1,1}

     drive    -          0 hcart2          2      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_000  {0,0,0,0}
     drive    -          1 hcart2          4      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_001  {0,0,1,0}
     drive    -          2 hcart2          6      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_002  {0,0,2,0}
     drive    -          3 hcart2          3      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_003  {2,0,0,0}
     drive    -          4 hcart2          5      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_004  {2,0,1,0}
     drive    -          5 hcart2          1      UP  -                              YC_LTO5_005  {2,0,2,0}

Being new to Netbackup I just want to be sure that, by doing this will it cause any issues with drives and will a Restart be needed? I checked Admin guides but could not find anything related. This is not a major issue but it would make it easy to identfy Device and Robot Tape drive when problems happen with drives.

Running NB.V7.6.0.1 OS Server 2008R2

[sdo]

Personally, IMHO, I wouldn't worry about it.   All your third party vendor hardware engineer ever needs to know is the serial number of any failed drive, and he'll take care of it.

If you're dead set on sequencing it, then you'll have to research the Commands Reference Guide and build yourself a plan / set of commands to rename the drives...

...and the NetBackup v7.6 Commands Reference Guide:

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.doc6489.html

...shows this on page 708:

UNIX systems: tpconfig -update -drive drvindex [-type drvtype] [-path drivepath] [-nh ndmp_hostname] [-noverify] [-newasciiname asciidrivename]] [-shared [yes|no]] [-cleanfreq hours] [-comment comment] [-drstatus [UP|DOWN|DISABLED]] [-robot robnum -robtype robtype] [-robdrnum robdrvnum | -VendorDrvName venddrvname | -ACS acsnum -LSM lsmnum -PANEL panelnum -DRIVE drivenum]


Windows systems: tpconfig -update -drive drvindex [-type drvtype] [-port port -bus bus -target target -lun lun ] [-nh ndmp_hostname -path drivepath] [-noverify] [-newasciiname asciidrivename]] [-shared [yes|no]] [-cleanfreq hours] [-comment comment] [-drstatus [UP|DOWN|DISABLED]] [-robot robnum -robtype robtype] [-robdrnum robdrvnum | -VendorDrvName vendor_drive_name] [-ACS acsnum -LSM lsmnum -PANEL panelnum -DRIVE drivenum]

...so it looks like there's an option "-newasciiname" to rename drives, so you could rename a drive to match the robot drive number...

...but, personally, I'd leave the ASCII name to match the NetBackup 'drive index'.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

It may be possible with Drive Name Rules.  

See:  http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO105494  
and  http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO106667 
 

Extract from 2nd HOWTO:

Use any of the following drive attributes as part of a drive name rule:

• Host name

• Robot number

• Robot type

• Drive position

You will have to delete the existing drives, rerun Device Config Wizard and click on Configure Drive Name Rules.

[Genericus]

I do this all the time, using the GUI. I have a SL8500 robot and an acsls interface, and several data domains, and they all use different numbering to refer to the drives, the drive naming rules never get then all correct.

Setting up drive naming rules will help when using "tpautoconf -a " or the storage wizard to name and find drives.

BUT

Even after you have all your drives, you can use the java console to rename drives.

The impact is that you MUST not be actively using them, and you MUST recycle the media manager on that media server once complete. - THIS WILL KILL ANY RUNNING BACKUPS ON THAT MEDIA SERVER!

If you go to the "Media and Device Management" section, then "Devices" then "Drives", you can select drives in the right hand window and either right click and select Change, or "Edit, Change" from the menu.

Once you rename a drive, a window will open asking you to restart the media manager daemon.

You may have to check the box selecting the media server to restart.

If you have several to do, you can skip this restart until you have made all changes.

NOTE - if you have drive sharing, this may require ALL media servers using that drive to restart. If you do NOT restart, jobs will fail because they cannot find the drives.

I have found that NetBackup basically runs through drives by name, so if you have drives sharing HBA or resources, you can use naming to balance them

[sdo]

I like the naming for balancing tip. Never thought of that myself. Thanks for the tip.

[Genericus]

I figured it our when I set up my data domains, so I ended up assigning every third drive to the hba, so the drive would use hba1, then hba2, then hba3. It works like a charm.