SAN Client configuration - nbhba mode - Error #227: no entity was found

[Muzaffar_Ansari]

Hi,

I want to configure SAN based backups for all Netbackup clients.

I've the below QLogic cards installed on the media server,

[root@nbu-media ~]# lspci | grep -i fibre
03:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2722-based 16/32Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2722-based 16/32Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter (rev 01)
82:00.0 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2722-based 16/32Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter (rev 01)
82:00.1 Fibre Channel: QLogic Corp. ISP2722-based 16/32Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter (rev 01)

...and I can see the storage connected to it.

[root@nbu-media ~]# lsscsi | grep -i storeonce
[13:0:0:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[13:0:1:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[13:0:2:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[13:0:3:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[14:0:0:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[14:0:1:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[14:0:2:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -
[14:0:3:0] process HP StoreOnce CoFC CAT1 -

After installing nbhba driver on the media server and rebooting it, when I try to list the ports in nbhba mode it gives error, "Error #227: no entity was found".

[root@nbu-media ~]# /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbftsrv_config -nbhba

Installing nbhba driver.
DRIVER_NAME ql2300_stub found.
Uninstalled WinDriver for FT Server mode.
Removing ql2300_stub.
It may be necessary to temporarily unload your QLogic drivers
to free up the ports for the nbhba drivers.

This is an optional step. If you choose not to do this, the
nbhba drivers may not have access to the HBA ports until a
subsequent reboot.

Would you like to unload and reload your native QLogic drivers now? [y,n] (y)
DRIVER_NAME ql2300_stub found.
Installed driver for nbhba mode.

[root@nbu-media ~]# reboot

[root@nbu-media ~]# /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbhba -l
0 ports recognized; 0 target mode ports; mode : driver in nbhba mode
Error #227: no entity was found

[Nicolai]

I would advise against using Fiber Transport on all clients. Fiber Transport is designed for moving large amount of data from a few clients. Also FT performs bad on unstructured data like file servers.

1: Check your FC adapters are on the hardware compatibility list

https://origin-download.veritas.com/resources/content/live/OSVC/100032000/100032807/en_US/nbu_80_hcl...

2: Did you mark the FC ports first ?

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/25074091-127355800-0/v95676923-127355800

[Marianne]

I agree with @Nicolai.

Extremely important to check compatibility. Only certain QLogic HBA's are supported. 
Confirm support for OS version as well. 

Under 'Fibre Transport Media Server - Considerations' topic, there is list of 'Operating system support dropped'.

Check if your Linux version is listed under 'Fibre Transport Media Server - Supported Platforms'.

Supported QLogic HBA's under 'QLogic - Support with Linux'.

[Muzaffar_Ansari]

Hi Nicolai,

Thanks for your reply, and Happy New Year 2019 to you...

For your kind advise against using FT on all clients, I'll suggest the same to the customer and ask them to go for FT only for clients with large data like DB servers.

>> 1: Check your FC adapters are on the hardware compatibility list

I checked the list. We've 2 media servers with the below HBAs and I found none of them in the list.

1. QLogic Corp. ISP2722-based 16/32Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter (rev 01)
2. Emulex Corporation LightPulse LPe16002 (rev 30)

But I found the below piece of information on the link under "Fibre Transport Media Server - Considerations" -> Support assumptions.

1. A NetBackup SAN Client supports any HBA and is used in conjunction with a NetBackup Fibre Transport Media Server. The HBA support model for NetBackup SAN Client is an "OPEN" model. All host bus adapters (HBA), switches, bridges, and routers are supported in a SAN environment. This means that if a Fibre Channel component is causing a problem, Veritas will work with the component vendor in an attempt to resolve the problem, but resolution is not guaranteed. Veritas and most hardware vendors listed are members of TSANet.

What does it mean? Will I get support from Veritas or not, if my HBA is not listed?

>> 2: Did you mark the FC ports first ?

As I said in my initial post that I 1st executed "nbftsrv_config -nbhba" to install the nbhba drivers and then I executed "nbhba -l" to list the FC ports.

If "nbhba -l" would had listed the ports with their status and wwn numbers I would've gone ahead with the next step of marking the ports, but it didn't recognized any ports and gave error #227.

Is there any way to mark the FC ports before running "nbhba -l" or "nbftsrv_config -nbhba"?

[Muzaffar_Ansari]

Hi Marianne,

Thanks for your reply and Happy New Year 2019 to you...

>> Extremely important to check compatibility. Only certain QLogic HBA's are supported.

As said in my last reply to Nicolai, I checked the HBAs in the Compatibility List and didn't find them.

>> Check if your Linux version is listed under 'Fibre Transport Media Server - Supported Platforms'.

I could see in the Compatibility List that RHEL 7 is supported only up to "Update 4" i.e. 7.4 with NetBackup 8.0 and above, and we're running on RHEL 7.5 with NetBackup 8.1.1.

Does that mean that since we're 1 release ahead, our solution is not supported for FT?

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately none of your hba's are supported. 
Only the Qlogic hba's listed under 'QLogic - Support with Linux' are supported. 
No Emulex hba's are supported.
You will not be able to config your media server as FT Media server. 

OS support is also an issue - your chances of getting it to work with unsupported OS are very slim, even with supported hba's.

About your query regarding 'Support assumptions': 
The reference to SAN Client HBA is about the clients that you want to backup via SAN - the Client hba does not matter, only the hba in the FT Media server.

[Muzaffar_Ansari]

Hi Marianne,

>> The reference to SAN Client HBA is about the clients that you want to backup via SAN - the Client hba does not matter, only the hba in the FT Media server.

Thanks for clarifying the point.

[Nicolai]

1: You need a FC adapters as listed in the hardware compatibility matrix. The stub driver Veritas is installing, is special code that changes the FC port to act as a virtual tape drive. Because of this special behaviour, only a limited set of cards are supported.

2: regarding the support text, it mean all adapters on the client side is supported. It does not mean all adapters on FT media servers are supported. All client HBA are supported because they work in a normal manner, whereas the FT media side is a special configuration.

Configuring FT media servers is 99% compatibility verification and 1% installation. FT media server is not a option that forgive deviations from the compatibility matrix :)

[Muzaffar_Ansari]

Hi Nicolai,

>> 2: regarding the support text, it mean all adapters on the client side is supported. It does not mean all adapters on FT media servers are supported. All client HBA are supported because they work in a normal manner, whereas the FT media side is a special configuration.

Got it... the same has already been pointed out by Marianne.

[Nicolai]

Marianne and I have a bad habit of posting at the same time :D