NovaBackup DC 5 Windows System Checks

NovaBackup DC 5

Windows System

Checks

Document version 1.5

Contents

Copyright

3

Introduction

4

Pre-install checks

5

Network share check ... 6

Windows 2008 ... 6 Firewall rules ... 6 Command server ... 6 Backup server ... 6 Backup client ... 6

Pre-operational checks

7

Disable removable storage manager service ... 7

Tape library operational mode ... 7

SCSI addresses ... 7

Tape library access ... 8

Tape library advanced ... 9

Tape library driver details ... 9

Barcodes ... 9

Drive occupancy ... 10

Operational checks

12

Commandserver can not resolve client name ... 12

Remote executor port blocked by firewall ... 13

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In many cases, Windows server installations differ from each other with respect how the system is configured.

This document shall help to find pitfalls on Windows servers in pre-install and post-pre-install situations.

Network

NIC driver

Open the Windows Device Manager on the backupserver (Start->Computer->Properties->DeviceManager).

Check the driver for the network interfaces (Properties->Driver->DriverDetails). Update the NIC driver.

Apply the same actions to the commandserver.

Hostname

In a DOS box on the prospective command server and/or backup server check the following property.

Command: hostname

• obtain the name of the commandserver system

Network configuration

In a DOS box on the prospective command server and/or backup server check the following property.

Command: ipconfig /all (ifconfig on Linux/UNIX)

• obtain the networks the commandserver is working in

• identify ISCSI networks

• identify DHCP usage, if it uses DHCP deactivate it, never use infinite lease time instead

IP resolution

In a DOS box on the prospective command server and/or backup server check the following property.

Command: nslookup {hostname}

• see if the hostname is network resolvable

• the hostname must resolve to one IP address, if it resolves to more than one, correct this

• the hostname must not resolve to an ISCSI IP address

• the hostname must not resolve to 127.0.0.1, but to an IP addressable by the clients

Network share check

Command: [none]

• check if network shares to be used as disk mediapool folders are r/w accessible

• obtain the username which has r/w access to that folders

Windows 2008

Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037/en-us to check which network settings are appropriate to maximize the network thruput on your Windows 2008 server.

Teamed NICs

Drastical thruput limitations on HP servers running Windows 2008 with 2 teamed network NICs have been observed. The cases observed two 1 GB NICs were temed to one 2 GB interface exposing one IP address. The performance limitations in the observed cases were less that 5% of the theoretical thruput (here 2 GB).

The workaround to raise the performance at least to the maximum possible thruput of one NIC is to unteam the cards and use one IP per NIC.

Firewall rules

Baseport is a TCP port number which defines a port range of 2 ports used for the communication between NovaBacku DataCenter components.

The firewall rules necessary to allow undisturbed traffic between the systems are shown below.

Command server

Backup server

Backup client

In NodesManager create the backupserver.

This will create (and start) the library control service on port 12001.

Tape library basic

Disable removable storage manager service

The Windows removable storage manager prevents NovaBackup DataCenter pf properly accessing tape drives in a tape library. Therefore it is

strongly recommended to disable the respective RSM service in the service manager of the backup server.

Tape library operational mode

In the operator panel or the web interface of the tape library set the operational mode to “Random”. Random mode allows random access to tape media slots. This is one pre-requisite for the work with tape mediapools.

SCSI addresses

In a DOS box on the backup server check the following properties. Change directory to {installdir}\Hiback\tape in the DOS box. Command: hiscsi -scan

• obtain the SCSI addresses of all targets visible on that system

• obtain driver state of the tape library and tape drive targets The result must show a “Changer” entry and at least one “Tape” entry in the “Device” column like in the following example:

Name C Device Vendor Product --- - --- --- --- A3B0S3L0 N Changer? OVERLAND LXB

A3B0S4L0 Y Tape0 HP Ultrium 2-SCSI A3B0S15L0 N Process ADAPTEC HostRAID

\\.\SCSI3: with (3) devices

The “Name” column shows the SCSI device address in the following format: A{adapter#}B{bus#}S{SCSI ID}L{SCSI LUN}

Tape library access

In a DOS box on the backup server check the following properties. Change directory to {installdir}\Hiback\tape in the DOS box.

Create simple tape library config file called hijacc.cfg containing control: The address of the change in the A#B#S#L# format port:12001 wait:30 skip:fast eject:no type:hijacc driveaddr:1:/dev/null

and store it in file named hijacc.cfg. The entry for “control:” must contain the SCSI address obtained by the “hiscsi –scan” command described earlier in this document.

Command: ophijacc -c hijacc.cfg -cmd 1

4 lines must show up containing the element addressing scheme of the library, for instance

Handlers : 1 Address: 0 Import/Export: 0 Address: 0 Drives : 1 Address: 240 Slots : 11 Address: 1

for a tape library of type Overland LibraryExpress Mediachanger.

If these lines do not appear, go to "Tape library driver details" in the next section.

Tape library advanced

Tape library driver details

Open the Windows Device Manager on the backupserver (Start->Computer->Properties->DeviceManager). Check the driver for the tape library (Properties->Driver->DriverDetails).

If basic check 3. failed, and libxprmc.sys (Microsoft Driver

6.1.7600.xxxxx) was installed, install the vendor driver for the tape library.

Repeat basic check 3.

If basic check 3. failed, and the vendor driver for the tape library was installed, install libxprmc.sys (Microsoft Driver 6.1.7600.xxxxx)

Note: deinstall the tape library before you install the Microsoft native libxprmc.sys (Microsoft Driver 6.1.7600.xxxxx). The tape library device then might show up as deactivated, which is intended.

Repeat basic check 3.

Barcodes

NovaBackup DataCenter tape library control needs media with barcodes and a tape library capable of reading barcodes.

Open a DOS box, change directory to {installdir}\Hiback\tape and run command:

ophijacc -c hijacc.cfg -cmd 5,1,100

This command creates an output like in the example below: Slot 1 of 11: full NDW030L2 Slot 2 of 11: full NDW031L2 Slot 3 of 11: full NDW032L2 Slot 4 of 11: full NDW020L2 Slot 5 of 11: full NDW017L2 Slot 6 of 11: full NDW013L2 Slot 7 of 11: full NDW014L2 Slot 8 of 11: full NDW015L2 Slot 9 of 11: full NDW016L2 Slot 10 of 11: full NDW018L2 Slot 11 of 11: full NDW019L2

The output shows the data slot occupancy of the tape library. If a slot is shown as “full” a tape is inside the slot. If the “full” is followed by a string, this string shows the barcode label of the tape medium inside the slot, for example “NDW030L2”.

Drive occupancy

NovaBackup DataCenter tape library control initially needs empty tape drives to obtain SCSI addresses for the tapedrives. This is especially necessary when attaching a tape library to a backup server. If the drive is occupied, you will receive an “mmf report error” message:

To check if the tapedrive is occupied in beforehand, open a DOS box, change directory to {installdir}\Hiback\tape and run command:

ophijacc -c hijacc.cfg -cmd 4

This command creates an output like in the example below: Drive 1: 00065L4

Drive 2: empty

The output shows a drive (1) that is occupied already by medium with barcode label 000065L4. The drive (2) is empty.

You can dismount the medium from drive (1) and move it to an empty slot using:

ophijacc -c hijacc.cfg -cmd 5,empty

to show empty slots which can be used to move the medium to. Output example:

Slot 27 of 92: empty Slot 31 of 92: empty Slot 40 of 92: empty

Now use

ophijacc -c hijacc.cfg -cmd 7,1,27

Hiback ping

With Hiback ping you check

1. Commandserver ability to resolve client name

2. Commandserver ability to connect to client remote executor 3. Client datamover functionality

4. Client ability to resolve backup server name 5. Client ability to connect to backup server

6. Backup server mediapool/device configuration and availability Open the commandserver GUI and navigate to Backup/Restore -> BackupJobs. In the list of backup jobs, mark an existing backup job, push right-mouse and choose [Ping] from the dropdown list.

If all the checks went fine, you will see a popup box similar to the following:

Commandserver can not resolve client name

If already the commandserver actions 1. and/or 2. fail you will see a popup box similar to the following:

In this popup box you see Data: 172.16.10.240.

This is the default address (ModesManager property) of the client. The message tells us that this address could not be connected by a TCP (stream socket) connection.

Reasons can be:

• Client IP address changed

• Firewall (also Windows firewall) blocks remote executor port on the way from commandserver to client

• Client remote executor service is not running

Remote executor port blocked by firewall

If a firewall blocks the remote executor port, you will see the following in a DOS box on the commandserver for a short time (TCP parameterization dependent) after the Hiback ping was executed:

Command: netstat -ano | findstr SYN

Result: TCP 172.16.10.65:57963 172.16.0.180:32334 SYN_SENT 2904 The contents of the result line shows

• the protocol (TCP),

• the sender IP:senderport,

• the receiver IP:remote-executor port

• the TCP connection state (SYN_SENT)

• the ID of the process opening the connection to the client

The SYN_SENT TCP connection state is the typical indicator for a firewall blockec remote executor port on the client side.

Client can not resolve backup server name

If the client can not resolve the name of the backup server you will see a popup box similar to the following: