VTL drives are not scanned completely after a reboot

[Vishal_Dave]

Hi,

I have Netbackup Master server running on RHEL Linux. We have a NetApp VTL configured for taking backups. After the Server is rebooted, only few drives are able to get scanned and visible from OS end. We have to forcefully scanned all the drives again.

I want to know if there is any setting from OS end or VTL side through which all the drives get scanned after every reboot.

Regards

Vishal Dave

[sdo]

Wiki Persistent Binding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_binding

[sdo]

Hi Vishal, welcome to the forum.  Your first post!

I think that you may need to implement 'persistent binding' at the OS 'driver' layer.  I can add that this is not a NetBackup function.  And I'm sorry, but I'm unable to give you exact specifics on what you need to do, as it depends upon the OS type, OS revision, HBA model/firmware, HBA driver version, HBA management software, tape drive driver etc.

My suggestion is that you may need to ascertain from both the OS documentation, and the HBA documentation how to implement 'persistent binding'.

HTH.

[Nicolai]

You can try to increase the SCSI command timeout, I am not  sure it will help but why not try it out.

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Online_Storage_Reconfiguration_Guide/task_controlling-scsi-command-timer-onlining-devices.html

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

It seems the issue here is with the NetApp filer not seeing all the tape drives after a reboot?
Is my assumption right or is it the Linux server having the problem?

If NetApp, you will need to look for NetApp documentation. The problem sounds to be caused by some sort of delay in device scanning at boot time.

Or speak to your NetApp support team to see if boot scripts or kernel parameters can be changed to speed up scanning. 

[Vishal_Dave]

I will try out each suggestion and will let you guys know the outcome.

Thanks Guys!!

[sdo]

Hi Vishal, just wondering if you have a few spare moments to describe how the issue was resolved?  Thank you.