what if moving the same tape library to another master server

[mpatt]

I need to move an existing i500 library from one Environement to another.

1) Any particular process to delete the tape drives from old Media server ? Or do i just delete them.

2) Also the new master/media server(s) that i am moving this i500 has a unfunctional Tape libary that i need to replace. While deleting the bad tape library, would there be any change in the Robots tape numbers? I currently have TLD 0, 1 and 2 of which TLD 0 is being replaced. Would deleting TLD 0 re-number the Robots?

3) Any particular precautions from netbackup master/media servers when migrating it to a new environment while deleting and adding to different master servers?

[Marianne]

On OLD Server:

First of all, physically remove all the tapes in the robot. You do not want the new server to see all tapes as new and start overwriting them.

Next, delete the tape drives and lastly the robot.
Deleting the robot will automatically move tapes to Standalone in NBU.

On NEW server:

Physically remove tapes from old robot.
Delete drives and robot.
Physically disconnect robot and drives and ensure devices are removed from OS view.
Connect new devices and ensure OS can see devices.
Install drivers if applicable.
Run device config wizard.
Put tapes removed from old robot in the newly attached robot.
Run Inventory but do not update yet - Do Preview recommended changes. Ensure new robot read tape labels the SAME way as old robot (if old robot used 1st 6 chars of label, ensure that new robot does the same.) If not the same, add Media ID Generation rule.
Complete Inventory.

Check Storage Unit Properties. If anyhing has changed (robot #, density, server name) either update the properties or delete STU and add new one.

If you add new STU and name is not exactly the same, update STU name in all policies.
If you have STU groups, update that too.

[Yogesh9881]

Old Master server & New Master server .....

we like to know do u want all tapes with new master server ?? or only want to reuse blank tapes from old master server ?? are you using tapes with barcode label ?? is new master server is compatible for existing tape library (FC, iSCSI) ?? do u want to keep old master server in live status ??

[mpatt]

Thanks Marianne for the reply (in time. I just reached the other site with the tape lib),

My only concern was with the deletion of the old drives and robot on the New Server. I have two other robots with 20 drives each with robot numbers 1 and 2. By deleting robot 0, would the numbers of these 2 robots change to 0 and 1 (instead of 1 and 2).

Yogesh,

Previous lib had LTO-3. We are now moving to LTO-4 and 5. I will not use any tapes of old master server. Those tapes are going to a different tape lib. Will use new LTO5 tapes with new master server and old LTO3 for backward compatibility (Read Only).

[Mark_Solutions]

Hi

If you delete TLD(0) it should not make the others automatically renumber themselves but could do next time you run the device configuration wizard

Rememer that if tapes from an old Master are taken to a new Master then the new one wont know anything about then and could happily overwrite them.

Also make sure the densities (hcart / hcart2 etc.) look OK on the new site so that the right tapes will go in trhe right drives.

Note also that LTO5 drives can read LTO3 tapes but cannot write to them so you may not need any LTO3 drives unless you have LTO1 or LTO2 tapes that need to be read

Hope this helps

[mpatt]

Mark,

Thanks for confirming that. I will not run device configuration, but manually assign this tape library to TLD 0 in the storage units, (without running device config wizard). Is that a good idea. I still have 1 hour to go?

As for the tapes, I am using all new blank LTO-5 for backup going forward. I made a note of your 3rd point before and we dont have any old HCART2's (LTO-5) only HCART, HCART3. And as i mentioned before, LTO-3 is read-only backward compatible iwth new LTO-5 drives.

[Mark_Solutions]

If you have deleted the old one then you should be able to add the new one in manually as TLD(0) - under the device section, then add its drives.

You may want to delete the old tld(0) storage unit(s) first and then create a new one(s) once you have added the robot and drives

Once you have done it do a couple of test backups to the drives - if they timeout after 5 minutes you have got your drive positions back to front in the library and will need to swap then round - to do this change say drive2 to be drive3 then drive 1 to be drive2 then drive3 back to be drive1

Hope that makes some sort of sense!

[Marianne]

Allow the device config wizard to do what it wants/needs to! The default for LTO5 is hcart2, which will need new STU name.

If new STU name, you will have to update all policies and STU-groups that needs to use the new STU.

[mpatt]

As i understood it:

"After deleting old Storage Unit/Drives TLD 0 and manually adding hte new one (without wizard) as TLD 0, if test backups to new TLD 0  timeout without writing, then it has been added as TLD 2 and the other Robots moved from 1 and 2 to 0 and 1 respectively. 

In that case, I will have to manually edit the Storage unit properties to TLD 0 ,1 and 2 (the way i want them).

Is that what you wanted to say.

I am taking Print Screen of all the STU's properties.

M Patt.

M4000 is freaking heavy. My hand is aching.

[Mark_Solutions]

Thats is not what i was saying - i was saying when adding its drives manually then you could add them in the wrong order.

My advice in view of you current position is to move all media to stand alone from the existing libraries then run the device configuration wizard

After that re-inventory the libraries - making sure that the new one gets it Media ID rule added if required

Let the wizard do it for you to avoid any mistakes

[mpatt]

Mark,

Cant i avoid running device config wizard. I am not against not doing it, if thats the only option.

Marianne,

I have close to a thousand policies using hte 3 libraries. I dont want to manually edit them. Currently very few use the STU with TLD 0 since it went bad. So i can change those.

M Patt,

Time to unmount.

[Mark_Solutions]

Of course you can do it manually - just test everything after it is done If the storage unit is specified in those policies then don't delete it! Just open it up after you have finished the work to ensure it is all valid Good luck

[mpatt]

Finished replacing the i500 just now. We were stuck up with Fibre configuration errors,so  that  took up much ofthe window.

I created a new Storage Unit, but did not risk  manually adding the drives, since I used my window.

I created  a test  STU with TLD 0 before running Storage Device Config Wizard, to avoid the risk  of  1 and 2 moving up to 0 and 1. The  wizard recognized the new lib as TLD 4.

I edited my test storage Unit and manually edited  it to choose TLD 4,  so that  policies configured  for media04-hcart2-TLD0  wouldnot have to be changed. 

Test backups  on all pool are running as of now.

Will update later....

[Mark_Solutions]

So how did it go?

Dont keep us in suspense any longer!

[mpatt]

It did go well, except that since i had not manually deleted the drives from TLD 0 at the OS level (/dev/rmt), the new one got added as TLD 4. Given that it was a production environment that i was meddling with and i ran into Hardware issues with the library which ate up my window, i had to use the wizards and not play around to configure it manually.

The only good news was that other Tape Lib config did not change.

I ran tpconfig, Option 2) Drive Config, deleted the drives that were downed, followed by Option 1) Robot Config, Delete Robot TLD 0, then add the Robot. After this step i jumped to the  GUI/console and used the option that i did not want to - Device config wizard, where the new Robot still got added TLD 4. I figured out that since I had not manually deleted the /dev/rmt/0cbn (till 5cbn), nbu was still seeing hte existence of TLD 0 drives. This can be argued, since i am not a Solaris expert.

The only grace for me was that i went to the Storage Unit defined with old TLD (0) and manualy selected TLD 4 as its robot. So backups are running as usual.

Thats the story for now Mark.

Patt

- My destiny is to prepare for an issue only after getting into it. Only that its usually not an unprecented one.