D2D Backup system on a customer site

[Stuart LIttle]

Currently configuring and gaining initial experience with a D2D on a customers site.
Basic system configuration had gone OK, initial backup from system to D2D OK, 'Copy' operation to offload cartridge to tape OK (about 1.5 hours including full verify)

Now attempted an import operation which is running very slowly, from data blocks read to expected this is going to take over 5 days. System is about 4 months old, not previously used, has anyone experienced this sort of import time before, or should I be looking for a firmware update.

Thanks, Stuart

[thomasr]

You should certainly make sure that you have the latest firmware -- there have been a number of performance optimizations released very recently.

You will get the most noticeable benefit from the new firmware if you start with new targets (that is, if you can, create a new virtual library and use it as the backup target instead of continuing to use the current library). You can keep current libraries without hobbling the new ones, so if you have a significant amount of data on the old library, it's possible you could create a new library and then use the backup application to copy data from one to the other, then delete the original library.

How is the tape drive attached to the D2D? What other operations are going on at the same time?

I believe that you'll see best performance if you set the NICs on the D2D to DUAL mode, and try to have the data balance across the two NICs (i.e., in the iSCSI initiator server setup, set some servers to use the IP address of NIC1 and some to use NIC2).

[Stuart LIttle]

Thanks, the tape drive is a built in Ultrium LTO 3.
Current firmware is kn7B-001,559 just FYI.
There are no other operations being carried out, this is simply a shakedown exercise.

BTW when I initially checked the HP site for any performance info I realised I do not know the model number of the unit, I could not find anything relevant on the case, is this info supplied by the Web Admin somewhere? I'm not onsite so cannot check again at the moment.

[thomasr]

If it's an internal tape drive, this is probably in the D2D100 series. The easiest way to find out is to use the management GUI -- simply enter the device's IP address in your browser and it will come up with a very nice interface that will give you model and serial numbers, health status, capacity used/available, etc.

If this is the D2D100 with an internal tape drive, can you tell me a bit more about how you set up the import? I don't have a unit in front of me, but I think the easy way is to put the tape in the tape drive, then in the GUI or backup application, 'move' the mail slot cartridge into the normal library slots. This performs the data copy operation, mimicking what would happen in a real library/autoloader.

[Stuart LIttle]

I shall check again for model info confirmation when back on site, currently initial import is still running :-)

From memory I followed the online info namely:- inserted tape cartridge and clicked 'Import' via the Web Admin against the mail slot. Job started to read from 'real' tape. Next step would be to move the mail slot to a cartridge
'mtx -f /dev/sg2 transfer 9 1', then finally actually perform the restore, which is actually of a ufsdump from a Redhat box.

[thomasr]

I've been out of the office... it may be Monday before I have a chance to look at the steps and make sure they're correct... let me know if you've solved it before then.

[Stuart LIttle]

I have just returned to site to see if any other information may be obtained.
The import job completed in just over 144 hours, with no verify. The initial copy + full verify took 1.5 hours. I still cannot find any specific model information from the Web Admin interface, apart from the Serial number, HU191248N0. Ultrium drive firmware version is reported as Q24D - 012.502.

[Stuart LIttle]

I have a subsidary question, having imported from a tape to mail slot and then moved the mail slot to an empty cartridge to perform the restore how can I free the cartridge other than exporting the data again?
The web interface allows me to remove blank cartridges, but does not allow removal of non-blank, the default operation allowed is to copy the data.

Thanks,
Stuart

[Stuart LIttle]

This went quiet for a while but recently have returned to this issue. Basically while connecting a second system to the D2D verification tests run at that time resulted in import times that were reasonable i.e. within the time taken for the original write. Again this is on the basis of limited test data (two import runs, one of 3G one of ~75G) but a much better result.

[Stuart LIttle]

Concerning reuse of a slot that has been imported, simply load that slot and use mt -f <..> erase. Obvious once I thought about it.

[thomasr]

Hello, Stuart. I'm not sure which problems you are still having. If you could restate them, I'd appreciate it.

[Stuart LIttle]

Actually I was just posting a followup. I had not been to the site for sometime and customer use of the system is only now starting to ramp up.
Import performance on the last run was OK, so my outstanding doubt is why the performance was so poor on the initial import run.

Therefore I would consider this issue closed unless I discover something else.
Thanks,
Stuart