Tape Robot path lost after enabling Solaris MPxIO

[manmountain]

Hi folks,

After enabling multipathing on Solaris server I encountered this issue with path to tape library unit. 

When I attempt run an inventory on the robot I get the following errors. 

>> robot inventory failed:  Unable to open robotic path (201)

I have rebuilt the dev/sg/* and /dev/rmt/* devices.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH31047

>> [0928][root@netbackup1:/]$ /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/sgscan all conf -v

Tape device types enabled in the Solaris tape driver, st(7D), configuration file:

All devices recognized by the SCSI Generic (sg) driver:

/dev/sg/c0t0l0: Disk (/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0): "HP      LOGICAL VOLUME  5.14"

/dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l0: Tape (/dev/rmt/3): "HP      Ultrium 5-SCSI  I5AW" : NOT-IN-ST-CONFIG-FILE

/dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db11l0: Tape (/dev/rmt/0): "HP      Ultrium 5-SCSI  I5AW" : NOT-IN-ST-CONFIG-FILE

/dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db16l0: Tape (/dev/rmt/1): "HP      Ultrium 5-SCSI  I5AW" : NOT-IN-ST-CONFIG-FILE

/dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db17l0: Tape (/dev/rmt/2): "HP      Ultrium 5-SCSI  I5AW" : NOT-IN-ST-CONFIG-FILE

/dev/sg/c1t0l0: Cdrom: "hp      DVD A  DS8A5LH  1HE4"

I still get robot inventory failed. Any ideas what the issue might be? 

Thanks

[revarooo]

Does robtest work, can you move a tape from a slot to a drive and back again?

If not, look outside of NetBackup.

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

Solaris Sparc or x86?

We have seen numerous problems (on this forum) on x86 servers where MPxIO was enabled. 

Only way to get robotics working was to disable MPxIO.

[manmountain]

Oh ok.... Yes it's an x86!

$ robtest

Configured robots with local control supporting test utilities:

  TLD(1)     robotic path = /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1

Robot Selection

---------------

  1)  TLD 1

  2)  none/quit

Enter choice: 1

Robot selected: TLD(1)   robotic path = /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1

Invoking robotic test utility:

/usr/openv/volmgr/bin/tldtest -rn 1 -r /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1 

Opening /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1

robotic path /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1 does not existRobotic test utility /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/tldtest

returned abnormal exit status (1).

[manmountain]

Is there any point to try to play around and see if I can get it working? Or is this a know bug that is not currently supported?

I have multipathing enabled SAN storage devices and would like to keep this functionality as throughput is greatly increased.  

[Andy_Welburn]

I suppose you could play around with it if you want, but:

Configuring Solaris 10 x86 for multiple drive paths
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO49492

To use multiple paths to the same tape drive, NetBackup requires that Solaris Multiplexed I/O (MPxIO) be disabled.

[Marianne]

I cannot find any workaround... 

Maybe best to log a Support call?

[manmountain]

Yea no joy... I attempted to create a single path to each drive and still have MPxIO enabled. There was an issue still with the robot. When I did disable MPxIO it worked and I could see both 2 drives and robot. 

Could I use Veritas Volume manager to manage storage LUNs. This should not affect how Solaris OS or netbackup views the tape drive?

[manmountain]

Since I have reconfigured drives and robot I am getting below error when running backups.

"The robotic Library is not defined in EMM"

Any ideas how I can resolve this?

[Marianne]

I wanted to suggest Storage Foundation (Veritas Volume Manager) but obviously had no idea if something like SF Basic (free version) would be sufficient.

About your latest problem - were daemons restarted after reconfig?

Please restart NBU, then post output of 'tpconfig -l'.

[manmountain]

[1507][root@netbackup:/]$ tpconfig -l

Device Robot Drive       Robot                    Drive                 Device         Second

Type     Num Index  Type DrNum Status  Comment    Name                  Path           Device Path

robot      0    -    TLD    -       -  -          -                     /dev/sg/c0tw500143801600db10l1

  drive    -    0 hcart2    1      UP  -          HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.000  /dev/rmt/0cbn

  drive    -    1 hcart2    2      UP  -          HP.ULTRIUM5-SCSI.001  /dev/rmt/1cbn

It actually appears to be only stage 2 of disk staging where backups are relocated from disk to tape that is not working. 

[Marianne]

Double-check STU specified in the staging portion of the DSU config. Just re-select the Storage Unit for this robot & drive combination.