MSL5052 Master/slave dropping drives

[Henrik Nilsson_2]

I've got a configuration where I have 1 DL380G2 backup server running Windows 2000 and two Windows 2003 cluster nodes that are connected to one 16-EL and one 8-EL switch, connecting to an MSA1000 and a Modular Data Router II that's bridging for (2) MSL 5052 libraries (4 SDLT Drives) connected together in a Master / Slave relationship. In addition, the backupserver has one fibre HBA FC2101 running FW 3.82a1 and driver 5-4.82a16 and the cluster nodes has two FC2101 HBA:s each (same FW/driver) with securepath.

We're also running the latest driver for the SDLT drives within the Windows 2000 OS. The backup software is Veritas Netbackup 5.0 MP2.

The problem that I'm experiencing is that in conducting backup or restore operations there will be a period of time of which a tape device will disappear from all of the SAN attached servers, thus causing backups or restores to fail. This has been an ongoing troubleshooting effort for almost 4 months now and we have the latest HBA drivers / firmware, the latest fibre switch firmware, the latest firmware on the MDR and the latest firmware on both of the MSL:s and all of the drives contained within. Note: The removable storage service within Windows 2000/2003 has been disabled. We're still no closer to the resolution on this. There's no specific amount in time when these devices drop off or time of day, we've just had to hope for the best in changing one variable at a time to see if this fixes our issue or not.

The next thing we are going to try is to replace the MDR with an NSR 2402 and se if this resolves anything.

Does anyone have any tips on this ???

[Gratien D'haese_2 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

maybe persistent binding of the FC HBA SCSI addresses may help you. Check out the included document on how to set this up.

[Henrik Nilsson_2]

Thank you for your reply!

We have switched the MDR for an NSR and so far (4 days) it has worked. But if the drives goes down once more we will try this.