AIX 5.3 driver for ESL712e Library

[T. Simpson]

I get the AIX error message:

-----------------------------------------------
cfgmgr: 0514-621 WARNING: The following device packages are required for
device support but are not currently installed.
devices.fcp.changer
-----------------------------------------------

I can not find the devices.fcp.changer software on the IBM installation media. Does HP supply the driver? I did not see AIX listed as a choice of operating systems in the ESL712e support download web page.

However, the ESL712e lists AIX as supported.

The tape and library works fine on AIX as long as I'm using the NetBackup software, which controls the robotics using a Windows server running the NetBackup media server software.

I want to access the drives and robot directly from AIX or at least from NetBackup running the media server software from the local AIX host if that is possible. It seems like I would need the AIX media robot (changer) driver to do that.

I do not want my production backups to be held hostage by a recalcitrant Windows server.

This all works fine on OpenVMS using MDMS...but we are being forced to migrate to AIX, which by the way, really sucks. AIX clusters are a really bad joke compared to OpenVMS.

Too bad HP was not smart enough to incorporate that technology into their products...but I digress...

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

A quick Google throws up this link:

http://unix.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/ibm-aix-l/how-to-get-rid-of-devicesfcpchanger-863554

which suggests you need to update the Atape driver from here:

ftp://index.storsys.ibm.com/devdrvr/AIX

Note that I've no experience with AIX so I've no idea whether this will actually work...

Cheers,

Rob

[VMS Unix Admin]

I think the Atape driver is StorageTek-specific. I need the HP equivalent for the ESL712e library.

Thanks for checking. I'll Google a bit further and see I can find anything. Searching HP's website was no help.

[Elizabeth Nash]

T,

If HP states the ESL712e is supported on AIX they should be providing you with ALL the required device drivers. I suspect if you talked to someone that was AIX savvy they might suggest you get a tape library that is really "supported" on AIX.

Obviously if HP cannot help out with this they must not have tested on AIX very throughly.

Elizabeth

[Brian M Welch · Accepted solution]

Believe it or not, this is a good sign. Your cfgmgr scans the HBA's, and sees something out on the line, it just isn't sure how to handle it. Since you are getting this message, I assume you are not using an IBM library.

If you are using netbackup, you need to configure ovpass for robotic control of the library.

Here's some helpful links for configuring devices in AIX for netbackup utilizing ovpass. I was provided the below from Symantec.

HOPE THIS HELPS!!!

-Brian

http://support.veritas.com/docs/279262
VERITAS NetBackup (tm) 6.0 Media Manager Device Configuration Guide for UNIX and Windows


http://support.veritas.com/docs/290200
Veritas NetBackup (tm) 6.5 Device Configuration Guide for UNIX, Linux, and Windows


Just doing a quick search for any useful ovpass TechNotes:

Here is a TechNote that is still being authored, that you might find useful.

How to configure ovpass when library is not manufactured by IBM and the scsi ID and lun ID is not known



Details:

Symptoms:

Cannot get the ovpass drivers to recognize robot control.
Cannot find scsi ID and lun ID for ovpass virtual tape library by looking at the switch, or by looking at the tape drive device file attributes.
Cannot configure ovpass for robot control on AIX media server.

Conditions:

Robot or library being configured on AIX media server is not manufactured by IBM The AIX media server will control the robot Robot is connected to the AIX operating system across a Storage Area Network (SAN) Tape drives inside the robot are seen at the operating system level The scsi_id and lun_id values for the /dev/rmtX devices do not indicate where the robot control "might be"
For example: lsattr -El rmt1, lsattr -El rmt2

Cause:

AIX does not create a default /dev/smc device for robot control if the robot or tape library is not manufactured by IBM.
Checking the tape drive device file attributes do not yield a pattern with which the scsi ID and lun ID for the robot can be derived.

Answer/Resolution:
Use the following command to create the /dev/ovpassX device for robot control. The same steps can be applied to any other supported robot or library that is not manufactured by IBM.

# /usr/openv/volmgr/bin/driver/install_ovpass
# mkdev -c media_changer -t ovpass -s fcp -p fscsiX -w scsi_id,lun_id

To determine what is the scsi ID and lun ID on a particular AIX server.

Obtain answers to these questions.

How many's HBA's are on the AIX server?
What kind of HBA's are they? (Include manufacturer and model) How many tape drives are on the AIX server?
Is this AIX server designated for robotic control?

To assist in finding the answers to the above questions, type this command to generate a support script output file:

# /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/goodies/support/support > /tmp/support.out

Looked at the LSDEV portion of the output file and found these.
fscsi0 Available 07-08-02 FC SCSI I/O Controller Protocol Device
fscsi1 Available 07-09-02 FC SCSI I/O Controller Protocol Device

To determine which interface the robot is connected to, run these commands and examine the output.

# export CFGLOG="CMD,METH,LIB,VERBOSITY:9"
# cfgmgr -l fscsi0
# alog -o -t cfg > /tmp/afile.txt
# cfgmgr -l fscsi1
# alog -o -t cfg > /tmp/bfile.txt

If the first cfgmgr command produces an error about "needing to load libraries", and the second cfgmgr command does not give this error, then the fscsi0 interface is connected to the robot. That first error means it found a robot but did not know how to configure the device driver. That error indicates that the robot is connected to fscsi0 and that interface would be specified in the mkdev command to create the ovpass device.

Next, looked at the afile.txt and looked for lines like this:

M1 753824 ...scsi_id/lun_id = 0x10600/0x0
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x1
M1 753824 4 luns found
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x1000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x2000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x3000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x1
M1 753824 4 luns found
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x1000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x2000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x3000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x1
M1 753824 4 luns found
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x1000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x2000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x3000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 753824 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x0
M1 753824 3 luns found
M1 868424 1 luns found
M1 868424 4 luns found
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x1000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x2000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x3000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...scsi_id/lun_id = 0x10600/0x0
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x8
M1 868424 5 luns found
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x1000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x2000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x3000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x4000000000000, type = 0x1
M1 868424 1 luns found
M1 868424 ...LUN = 0x0, type = 0x0
M1 868424 3 luns found

Look at the tape drive attributes to see which tape drives are on each scsi ID (HBA) listed above.

Use lsattr command on each rmt device to see which scsi ID and lun ID is for each tape drives. Example:
# lsattr -El rmt0
# lsattr -El rmt1

Use process of elimination to determine which scsi ID and lun ID combination was not associated with a tape drive. The remaining scsi ID and lun ID combination listed should be the robotic control arm. Use those values in the mkdev command to create the ovpass device.

Note: I would still defer to the above Device Configuration guides for additional examples.

[VMS Unix Admin]

Thanks Brian. You are exactly right. I got the same information from IBM support and got everything working.

Neither HP support or NetBackup support had any idea how to solve this problem. Thank goodness IBM support was good enough to help with a problem that was clearly not their issue.

Regards,
Tom

[Brian M Welch]

Any points to assign?

[Eric_de_Lange]

Well, do you have an ESL-E tape Libary ? or an IBM Library ?

In both cases, I would examine the lsdev output to see of the changer device is detected at all.

I recommend reading following manual (chapter 2)

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH52800

If you do continue to have issues AND your indeed have an ESL-E tape library, make sure you have LUN security configured properly for the ESL-E in Command View TL.

kind regards,

-Eric