cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Rescan Inventory in the robotic library

Fabian_Schwarz
Level 4

Hi all,

I my job I have a HPE MSL6480 robotic library.
Every day I need insert scratch tapes in this library.
When I insert scratch tapes, I need press a button named "Rescan Inventory" in this library
and then issue the NBU Inventory robot (by the GUI or by the CLI -> vmupdate).

I´m looking for any NBU command line to substitute the "Rescan Inventory" process in the library.

Thanks.

9 REPLIES 9

Tape_Archived
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP   

@Fabian_Schwarz what command are you using for this??

Have you tried empty_map option in your CLI?

vmupdate -rt tld -rn robot_number -h EMM_server -rh robot_control_host -empty_map -use_barcode_rules

Hi Tape_Archived,

I tried all these parameters in the vmupdate command, without success.

Thanks.

Tape_Archived
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP   

Then may be there is no robotic connection between your media server to the Tape Library. What is happening here is - you are asking Tape Library to Inventory itself and then NetBackup just updates its media database that new tapes are available in the Tape Library.

Can you please try robtest and see if you can connect to the Tape Library?? Also do you see any error when you try to run command with different options?

The library is fully operational. 

No errors are detected when I run the vmupdate command.

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

There is no issue with the connectivity between the NetBakup RCH and the library, else I presume Fabian would have mentioned it.

Most libraries, at least will auto inventory themselves when tapes are added, either to the CAP or into the main slots directly.

NetBackup does NOT run a inventory on the library (despite the term being used) - an NBU inventory is simply the scsi CDB 'read element status' which casues the library to TELL NetBackup what is where.  In order for the library to tell NBU it has to know itself, hence why it has to run it's own inventory.

You cannot make the library run it's own inventory from NBU, that is, you cannot run 'Rescan Inventory' from NBU.

What might be possible, is to get the library to automatically inventory itself when one of the doors (or magazines) is opened and closed.  HP should be able to advise if this is possible, but from NBU it cannot be done directly.

KR

 

Martin

 

 

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

In fact thinking about this, I'm slightly surprised that the library isn't automatically running it's own inventory without having to press the Rescan Inventory button.  Have you checked the manual to see if there is an option somewhere in the library console.  I don't think I've ever seen a library that doesn't auto inventory itself, although there is usually an option to force an inventory if desired.

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

The empty map option wont be of anyuse until the robot has completed its own inventory.  When you empty map, the robot tells NBU what is in the MAP /CAP and wha is in the regular slots.  Once NBU has this info it sends move medium scsi commands to move the tape from the MAP to an empty slot.

We don't even know from the original post if tapes are being added to the MAP or directly into the slots, which would be a little unusual but still valid.  It's irrelevant anyhow, as no matter which way it's done, the library still has to run its own inventory, and it is the need to manually run this that is being questioned.

The GUI inventory option and vmupdate command do the same thing which is to issue the scsi read element status command, which does not trigger the robots own inventory.  As i mentioeed one of my other posts there should be no need, as the library should be doing this automatically.

Could I use robtest to verify which tapes are in the MAP ? This command could help me ?

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Yes, go into robtest and use command s p

This will only work if the library knows the tapes are in the MAP, remember, the library tells NBU ...

A neat trick on Unix, using the path to the library from tpconfid -d

echo 's p' |tldtest -r <path to library>

This does the same thing, you can run any softest command This way.  It's quicker and you can direct the output to a file.