Hello!
I apologize for the delay in posting this addendum summary, but I like to
wait until enough people have had a chance to reply and I also like to work
things through sometimes before reporting what I've found. Many thanks to
all who have replied:
Jasper Hoon
Bjorn Berglund
Pascal Pederiva
Lawrence Decker
Robert L. Bailey
Paul A. Belcher
Jef HamLin
I received sympathy from some who said that they are in the same boat as
myself in that when they upgrade above Networker 3.2A, they will either have
to buy the jukebox license or simply go without the advance tape
functionality. Others gave the commands to use from the UNIX command line to
advance the tape. One person said that he called up the appropriate
licensing people and let them have it for making him pay for an extra
license when upgrading their software (he ended up getting the jukebox
license for free). Still others gave some more examples of tape backup
software to use, and they are Alexandria (www.spectralogic.com), Veritas
NetBackup, and BRU (www.estinc.com).
The Networker commands to use to advance the tape are:
nsrmm -j -f /dev/nrmt0h #Unmounts and ejects the current tape and
loads the next tape
mt -f /dev/nrmt0h online #Advances to the next tape
nsrmm -m -f /dev/nrmt0h #Mounts the tape in Networker
I knew what the commands were to advance the tape in a loader device, I just
didn't know WHEN to use them. For example, if one tape backup is currently
running and another saveset group kicks off but the right tape for it isn't
loaded, I don't want the tape to be advanced.
What I did is install Networker 4.4, run it, and then see how it acts when
the tape currently being used runs out of space. What I found is that to put
together a script which will advance the tape when needed, you need to watch
for three conditions before advancing the tape:
1)make sure that there is a tape that is mounted in Networker.
2)see if the tape that is mounted in Networker is write protected. In
Networker 4.4, once it has finished using the current tape, it write
protects it on a temporary basis; I think that this is so that the same tape
doesn't somehow get reloaded and written over. If you were to unmount and
then remount the tape, it would no longer be write protected.
3)check to see if the saveset pool that the current tape belongs to is the
same pool that executed the tape mount request.
I won't go further into detail unless someone wants me to, but that's how I
managed to get Networker to advance the tape without us buying the jukebox
license.
Thanks again to all who responded!
- Stephen Spalding
> ----------
> From: Spalding, Stephen[SMTP:SSpaldin_at_mem-ins.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 1998 09:00
> To: 'alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov'
> Subject: SUMMARY: Tape backup software
>
> My original message was:
>
> "Hello managers!
>
> > We currently use Polycenter's Networker Save and Restore (NSR) version
> > 3.2A as our tape backup software, and we've been using it for about the
> > last two years. The reason why we have avoided upgrading to a later
> > version is because of the additional jukebox license that we would have
> > to buy for the "sequential access loaders" on our two tape drives (TLZ6L
> > and TZ885) so that the tape could be advanced if EOT was reached during
> > the backup.
> >
> > I have put in a call to our vendors this morning to see what this
> > license is going to cost us for our Alpha server 2100 and 4100 as we are
> > considering upgrading to NSR version 4.4, but I think that it's kind of
> > ridiculous to have to pay for this functionality that I feel should be
> > included with the backup software package.
> >
> > What kind of problems has anyone had going from NSR version 3.2A to 4.4?
> > Is there a better tape backup software out there that we should be using
> > instead of NSR? Does anyone else find it annoying to have to pay extra
> > for the jukebox license for the newer version of NSR for tape drives
> > with magazine loaders or am I just being a tightwad?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> > Stephen Spalding
> > Associate System Administrator
> > Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance
> > sspaldin_at_mem-ins.com
> > 1000 West Nifong
> > Columbia, MO 65203
> > (573) 499-4230
> > (800) 442-0590
> > fax (573) 499 - 4310"
> >
> >
> >
> Sorry for the delay in summarizing, but I've been waiting until a few
> things
> happened for us before doing so. From the responses that I got, there's
> not
> a whole lot of love out there for NSR version 4.4 due to miscellaneous
> problems with it. However, I also understand that if you use the DU
> advanced
> file systems, your only options on tape backup software is either NSR or
> vdump/vrestore; has anyone heard otherwise? Another tape backup software
> that I've heard mentioned several times is Amanda which can be found at
> http://www.cs.umd.edu/projects/amanda/. This is freeware software which is
> nice to have, but it is also unsupported aside from an email mailing list
> such as this one.
>
> We have upgraded one of our servers to NSR version 4.4 and have been
> running
> with it for about a week now. So far, after a few minor bumps getting it
> installed, it has run okay. It will not advance the tape on our TLZ6L tape
> drive with a four tape magazine which is no problem during the week but a
> headache over the weekend and holidays when we're not here. I've been
> thinking about coming up with a shell script to advance the tape in the
> tape
> drive for us instead of us paying the $2,000+ fee per server for the
> jukebox
> license, but I'm having a little difficulty figuring out how to do this.
> I'd
> appreciate it if anyone would care to share anything that he/she has come
> up
> with on this. I'll make an addendum summary with any responses that I get.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Stephen Spalding
>
Received on Wed Jun 03 1998 - 19:47:13 NZST