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Spectra Logic Spectra nTier500 User Manual Download Page 99

Implementing nTier Deduplication

96

Troubleshooting

General Console operations

The VTL Console is unable to connect to a nTier VTL appliance

There are several operations that occur when the Console connects to the server. A 
dialog indicates the current step. If there is a failure, the word 

Failed

 appears at the 

end of the step. Determining the current phase of connection can help you pinpoint 
the problem. It is also possible that the server is busy. Wait for a while and retry. At 
what step did the connection fail?

•

Connecting to the nTier VTL appliance

 - If the IP address of the server 

has recently changed, delete the server from the Console and re-add it. If 
you entered a server name, try entering its IP address instead. If this does 
not help or if the IP address has not changed, ping the target machine. 

If ping does not reply, ping other machines in the same subnet. If there is 
still no response, there is a network problem. Run a network command or 
utility to show the status of the network. 

•

Verifying user name and password

 - Check the user name and the 

password. You may use the root password or any other administrator or 
read-only user that you have created with FalconStor VTL previously. Make 
sure the user name and password exist on the server by opening a local 
session. The password is case-sensitive. Make sure the 

Caps Lock

 key is 

not pressed on the keyboard.

From the machine where VTL Console is installed open a SSH session to the 
nTier VTL appliance. Log on to the server with the same user name and pass-
word. If the connection between the two machines is fine, the Console should be 
able to connect to the server unless some important server module is not run-
ning, such as the communication module. To see the status of all modules, at the 
machine where FalconStor VTL is running, go to the system console and type: 

ipstor status

.

If a module has stopped, restart it with the command:

vtl restart <

module name

>

 

Afterwards, go back to the Console and retry connecting to the server.

•

Retrieving the server configuration

 - If there is something wrong with the 

configuration, an error message may appear. Contact technical support. 

•

Checking the FalconStor VTL license

 - Contact technical support.

•

Expanding the nTier VTL appliance node

 - This may be due to high 

memory usage. Check the memory consumption on the machine. If it is very 
high, stop all unnecessary processes. If the problem persists or if the 
memory consumption is normal, contact technical support.

Summary of Contents for Spectra nTier500

Page 1: ...Implementing nTier Deduplication featuring FalconStor Software ...

Page 2: ...Scale are registered trademarks of Spectra Logic Inc FalconStor Software FalconStor and IPStor are registered trademarks of FalconStor Software Inc in the United States and other countries Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners Spectra Logic and FalconStor Software reserve the r...

Page 3: ......

Page 4: ... initiators to access your nTier VTL appliance 13 Create a target for the iSCSI client to log onto 13 Assign the virtual tape library drives to the iSCSI target 14 Log the client onto the target 15 Using the built in Everyone_FC client 16 Assign the virtual tape library to the Everyone_FC client 16 Discover the virtual tape library from your backup server 17 Create and run backup jobs 17 Confirm s...

Page 5: ...ith FalconStor VTL 41 Assign physical libraries drives to the virtual tape library 42 Importing Exporting tapes 43 Import a tape 43 Export data to a physical tape 45 Advanced Features Protecting your FalconStor VTL configuration 47 Automatically save the configuration 47 Manually save the configuration as needed 49 Restore the configuration 49 Virtual tape drive compression 50 Setting server prope...

Page 6: ...lient onto the target 78 Setup using Open iSCSI 79 Prepare the iSCSI initiator 79 Add your iSCSI client 80 Create targets for the iSCSI client to log onto 80 Linux client configuration 81 Prepare the iSCSI initiator 81 Add your iSCSI client 81 Create targets for the iSCSI client to log onto 81 Log the client onto the target 82 Solaris client configuration with iSCSI only 82 Prepare the iSCSI initi...

Page 7: ...l Console operations 96 Physical resources 97 Logical resources 98 Client cannot see tape library drive as provisioned by FalconStor VTL 100 Deduplication 101 System configuration 102 Import Export 103 Take an X ray of your system for technical support 104 Appendix System security 105 Index ...

Page 8: ...nTier with FalconStor VTL increases the speed and reliability of backups that use standard backup applications by leveraging disk to emulate industry standard tape libraries such as Spectra tape libraries VTL takes advantage of your iSCSI or Fibre Channel network to transfer data to and restore data from a disk based virtual tape at ultra high speeds Because VTL can emulate more tape drives than t...

Page 9: ...ape being deduplicated is needed for backup or restore when the backup application finishes using that particular tape the deduplication job automatically resumes from where it left off If replication is configured SIR replicates its repository and metadata Data duplicated across remote sites is deduplicated at the central site enabling only globally unique data to be replicated to the disaster re...

Page 10: ...ease your parallel backup streams and take advantage of VTL rapid data recovery without having to alter your current configuration With the backup application managing the entire backup process virtual tapes and physical tapes are seen in the same way a virtual tape is just another tape With the Standard VTL Configuration backups to virtual tapes occur quickly Then at a later time the backup serve...

Page 11: ...iguration requires you to set up the initial physical tape library emulation from within the VTL Console so that there is a 1 1 mapping with identical barcodes between virtual and physical tapes This enables the backup software to keep track of backup tapes and prevents tapes from being created that would be unidentifiable by the backup software Whenever data is written to physical tape the virtua...

Page 12: ...red components Verify that you have received the following items nTier VTL appliance with FalconStor software Two or three power cords depending upon the nTier VTL configuration Slide rail assembly kit VTL Management Console CD Product keycode certificates Installation guide for the nTier VTL configuration Product keycodes have already been installed on the appliance Install the nTier VTL applianc...

Page 13: ...ce has a Fibre Channel card connect a FC cable from your switch to each of the FC ports on the rear of the appliance 4 Some appliances contain a SCSI card for import from export to physical tape If you are using a SCSI cable to connect to your backup server connect the cable from the SCSI connector on the rear of the appliance to your backup server 5 Attach one end of a power cord to the appliance...

Page 14: ...ne of the Console and select Discover 2 Specify the subnet range of your VTL appliance and click OK 3 Wait for the nTier VTL appliance hostname to appear in the navigation tree The hostname has the format xxxxx where xxxxx is the number of your VTL appliance which is displayed on a label on your appliance 4 When the hostname appears in the navigation tree right click on it and select Connect 5 Log...

Page 15: ...e is applied when you add a SAN client as described in Controlling backup server access to the nTier appliance Using the built in Everyone_iSCSI client On all nTier VTL appliances iSCSI is enabled by default and the client Everyone_iSCSI is already created This special SAN client represents your backup server but does not correspond to any specific client machine Using this client you can create i...

Page 16: ...ou are using a different iSCSI initiator refer to the documentation provided by the vendor 1 Run Microsoft iSCSI Initiator on the backup server using the shortcut on your desktop or by selecting Start Programs Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Microsoft iSCSI Initiator 2 Click the Discovery tab then click Add under the Target Portals group box 3 Enter the nTier VTL appliance s IP address or name if resolv...

Page 17: ... 7 A message is displayed when the iSCSI target has been created successfully When you close the message a prompt asks if you want to assign a resource virtual tape library or drive to the target Select No to close the prompt or Yes to continue with step 2 under Assign the virtual tape library drives to the iSCSI target If you select No refer to Assigning virtual tape libraries to backup servers a...

Page 18: ...ifferent iSCSI initiator refer to the documentation provided by the vendor 1 Return to the backup server To see the iSCSI targets from the client machine run Microsoft iSCSI Initiator again or if the application is still open click the Targets tab If the iSCSI target assigned to the client is not listed click Refresh Assigned iSCSI targets should now appear 2 Select the added target and click Log ...

Page 19: ...pe library to the Everyone_FC client 1 Expand the SAN Clients object in the left pane of the console 2 Right click the Everyone_FC object and select Assign 3 Select the default virtual library to be assigned to the client You can also select Allow tape drives in the tape library to be assigned individually to display the virtual drives in the library You can assign a virtual device tape library or...

Page 20: ...TL resources will appear the library under Medium Changers and tape drives under Tape Drives and if the appropriate tape drive and tape library device drivers are installed on the backup server the correct device name and type are associated and the devices will become ready for use by the backup software If a new device is unknown right click it to display its Properties Acquire and update the dr...

Page 21: ...en which updates dynamically during a backup job After the backup job completes use your backup software to verify that the data was written completely and can be restored Configure optional services Replication is an optional feature Refer to Replication for information about replicating virtual tapes Save your VTL system configuration After your VTL setup is complete you should save your nTier V...

Page 22: ...m object and select Properties A screen displays showing options you can set 2 Choose on of the start options Delay start imposes a delay before deduplication begins This option is preselected and set to 1 minute Setting this value to 0 imposes a delay of 30 seconds Start deduplication at lets you avoid an overlap between backup jobs and deduplication 3 Minimum amount of data written prevents dedu...

Page 23: ...show only the information that you wish to view To expand an item that is collapsed click on the symbol next to the item To collapse an item click on the symbol next to the item Double clicking on the item will also toggle the expanded collapsed view of the item You need to connect to the server before you can expand the server object When you highlight any object in the tree the right hand pane c...

Page 24: ...eate delete virtual tape drives Enable replication for tapes in the library Set tape properties for the library enable modify tape capacity on demand change maximum tape capacity For each virtual tape you can Move the virtual tape to a slot drive or to the virtual vault Enable replication for that tape Change tape properties change barcode enable modify tape capacity on demand enable write protect...

Page 25: ...are the backup servers that use the FalconStor VTL FalconStor VTL supports Fibre Channel and iSCSI backup servers For client configuration information refer to the appropriate sections in this guide Reports object FalconStor VTL provides reports that offer a wide variety of information Throughput Physical resources allocation and configuration Disk space usage Fibre Channel adapters configuration ...

Page 26: ...e throughput and usage reports The data can be saved in a comma delimited csv or tab delimited txt text file To export information right click on a report that is generated and select Export Physical Resources object Physical resources are all of your adapters FC HBAs and storage devices Hard disks are used for creating virtual tape libraries drives and virtual tapes Physical resource icons The fo...

Page 27: ...rs collapses a server that has been idle for the number of minutes you specify If you need to access the server again you have to reconnect to it The default is 10 minutes you can enter 0 minutes to disable the timeout Do not show the welcome screen for wizards skips an introductory screen that starts each wizard Enable advanced tape creation method offers advanced options when you create tapes su...

Page 28: ...on the server and select Administrators There are several types of users administrators VTL Administrators are authorized for full Console access VTL Read Only Users are only permitted to view information in the Console They are not authorized to make changes and they are not authorized for client authentication VTL iSCSI Users are used for iSCSI protocol login authentication from iSCSI initiator ...

Page 29: ...ple if you click on the ID heading you can sort the events numerically This can help you identify how often a particular event occurs Filter the Event Log By default all informational system messages warnings and errors are displayed To filter the information that is displayed 1 Right click on a server and select Event Log Filter 2 Select which message types you want to include Type I This is an i...

Page 30: ...ormation that may require your attention such as Physical library failures Hardware appliance errors Replication errors It also notifies you when an import export job has completed You can view this information in the VTL Console when you highlight a server in the tree and select the Attention Required tab in the right pane The Attention Required tab appears for a nTier appliance with FalconStor V...

Page 31: ...bout your network Domain name Internal domain name Append suffix to DNS lookup If a domain name is entered it will be appended to the machine name for name resolution DNS IP address of your Domain Name Server Default gateway IP address of your default gateway NIC List of Ethernet cards in the server Changing the IP address and netmask is described in the next numbered step Enable SSH Enable disabl...

Page 32: ...packet If your card supports it set this value to 9000 for jumbo frames Click Add and enter the new IP address then click OK Enter the information supplied by your network administrator for primary name server netmask network interface card and any other options 4 Click OK 5 When prompted click Yes to restart the network connector 6 Re connect to the appliance ...

Page 33: ...es to reboot your VTL appliance Changing the default password After initial setup it is recommended that you change the default password 1 Right click the nTier VTL appliance name and select Change Password 2 Enter the original password spectra new password confirm the new password then click OK Changing the default deduplication properties By default the deduplication process begins after a tape ...

Page 34: ...lt is 1 minute Setting this value to 0 imposes a delay of 30 seconds Minimum amount of data written prevents deduplication unless at least this amount of data has been written to the tape The default value is 1 MB you cannot specify a lower value 3 Click OK when you are done Note During system maintenance or if advised by technical support you can disable deduplication by unchecking Trigger dedupl...

Page 35: ...tions and guarantees that your backup application will accept the tapes 3 Enter information about the tape drives in your library Virtual Drive Name Prefix The prefix is combined with a number to form the name of the virtual drive Total Virtual Drives Determines the number of virtual tape drives available This translates into the number of concurrent backup jobs that can run Backup software licens...

Page 36: ...des when FalconStor VTL attempts to export to a physical tape it must find a matching barcode in the physical library Determine if you want the virtual tape copied retained or moved removed after the data is transferred If you select Move indicate how long to wait before deleting it Indicate if you want to eject physical tapes to the library s Import Export slots after export 5 Enter barcode infor...

Page 37: ...ended that you use this option This option is set by default for the preconfigured virtual tapes You can duplicate the default settings as indicated below Initial Tape Size Incremental Size The pre configured initial size is 5 GB and the default amount by which it will be incremented is 10 GB You can enter alternate values for your tapes Different tape types have different defaults Maximum Capacit...

Page 38: ... prompted to create virtual tapes Answer Yes to continue Refer to the following section for information about creating virtual tapes beginning with step 2 Creating virtual tapes You can create virtual tapes for the default virtual tape library or for a library you created 1 Right click on a virtual tape library object or on the Tapes object and select New Tape s 2 Select how you want to create the...

Page 39: ...al tape library whose tapes you want to match This enables you to create barcoded virtual tapes that match your physical tapes This is important for exporting functions 5 If you are matching physical tapes select the physical tapes for which you want to create matching virtual tapes SPECTRA T120 00004 SPECTRA T120 2000 ...

Page 40: ...6 Specify the size of the tape s name and number of tapes to create 7 If you are not matching physical tapes you can set a barcode range for the virtual tapes you are creating 8 Verify all information and then click Finish to create the virtual tape s ...

Page 41: ...rary object in the VTL Console Using a client object 1 Expand the SAN Clients object until you see the target object For Fibre Channel clients this is the object named Fibre Channel below the client name For iSCSI clients this is the object below the client name and iSCSI Right click the target object and select Assign 2 Select the virtual tape library All tape drives in the library will be assign...

Page 42: ...rt data to physical tapes you must configure the Auto Archive function for the virtual tape library The Auto Archive function writes data to physical tape whenever a virtual tape is moved to an Import Export slot from a virtual library by a backup application or other utility after a backup In order for the Auto Archive function to work the physical tape library must support barcodes when FalconSt...

Page 43: ...ual tape library or export virtual tapes to physical tapes Before you can perform these operations do the following Connect the physical tape library to the nTier VTL appliance Fibre Channel is supported and if the appliance has a SCSI card you can use a SCSI connection In the VTL Console prepare the physical tape library drives for use with the virtual tape library In the VTL Console assign the p...

Page 44: ... order to prepare the physical devices for use with FalconStor VTL Otherwise the FalconStor VTL automatically scans for new devices when you reboot 1 Right click the Physical Resources object and select Prepare Devices 2 For the Device Category select Reserved for Direct Device 3 Select the devices you want to prepare deselect any device that you do not want to include 4 Confirm your choices and s...

Page 45: ...l tapes to physical tapes you must assign your physical tape libraries drives to the virtual tape library This process also inventories the physical tapes in your library drive so that you can create virtual tapes that match your physical tapes First assign the physical library and then assign the drives 1 Right click on the Physical Tape Libraries object and select Assign 2 Select the physical li...

Page 46: ... files from a physical tape you can use the import function to directly access the physical tape for immediate recovery In addition you can export data on virtual tapes to physical tapes for long term data archiving This process builds a full physical tape For deduplicated tapes that have been replicated exporting the tape is useful for disaster recovery purposes so that data can be accessed from ...

Page 47: ...2 Select the virtual library to which you want to import a tape Be sure to pick a drive library with the same tape size capacity 3 Select how you want the data copied Copy Mode Copies the entire contents of a physical tape onto a virtual tape and leaves the physical tape unchanged Direct Access Mode Links a physical tape to its virtual counterpart This gives the backup application immediate access...

Page 48: ...lly moved to the virtual vault Export data to a physical tape Moving data from virtual tape to physical tape can be accomplished in several ways From your backup software using the software s own Tape Copy function Using the FalconStor VTL export function either manually or automatically after each backup using the Auto Archive function The FalconStor VTL export methods are explained below Export ...

Page 49: ...tape for a time before deleting it Copy Mode Copies the contents of the virtual tape to its physical counterpart and retains the virtual tape after the data is transferred 7 Select or clear the Export physical tapes to I E slots after export check box 8 Select the virtual tape you want to export If your physical tape drive library uses barcodes we highly recommend that you select to use the same b...

Page 50: ... Each feature is described below Automatically save the configuration Saving your FalconStor VTL system configuration on a regular basis can make your life easier should you ever need to replace your nTier appliance You should have saved your system configuration to a secure location on a different computer after your FalconStor VTL installation configuration was completed For consistent protectio...

Page 51: ...lute path like c vtlconfig The Username is the user that your FalconStor VTL system will log in as You must create this user on the FTP server This user must have read write access to the directory named here You will also have to enter the user s password In the Interval field determine how often to replicate the configuration Depending upon how frequently you make configuration changes to Falcon...

Page 52: ...ter recovery purposes and should not be used in day to day operation of the server Restoring a configuration overwrites existing virtual device and client configurations for the server FalconStor VTL partition information is not restored This feature should only be used if your configuration is lost or corrupted To restore the configuration 1 Select the nTier VTL appliance object and select Tools ...

Page 53: ...bject and select Properties 3 Select the Enable VirtualTape Library compression mode checkbox Compression is a global setting which means that it will apply to all tapes in your system If compression is enabled in the FalconStor VTL you can still disable or enable compression on each individual virtual tape drive in the same manner as real tape drives via your backup application Depending on your ...

Page 54: ... for more information 5 On the Storage Monitoring tab enter the maximum amount of storage that can be used by FalconStor VTL before you should be alerted When the utilization percentage is reached a warning message will be sent to the Event Log Configuring FalconStor VTL to send SNMP traps FalconStor VTL provides Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP support to integrate FalconStor VTL managemen...

Page 55: ...ething occurred that may require maintenance or corrective action errors and critical errors will be sent Informational severity level 4 Informational messages errors warnings and critical error messages will be sent 5 Click Add to enter the name of your SNMP server and a valid SNMP community 6 To verify that SNMP traps are set up properly set the level to Informational and then do anything that c...

Page 56: ...or has already been copied to the SIR repository The process then passes only single instances of unique data to the SIR repository Upon completion the original virtual tape is replaced with a Virtual Index Tape VIT which contains pointers to the data on SIR storage instead of the actual data The VTL Console offers a variety of information about the performance of your deduplication efforts From t...

Page 57: ...f virtual tapes that have been deduplicated including VTL server name Tape barcode Tape size Blocks processed The number of blocks of data that were deduplicated MB processed The amount of original data sent from the tape MB stored The amount of unique data on the tape that has been stored in SIR storage Deduplication ratio The ratio of the amount of data scanned to the amount of data stored If th...

Page 58: ...values displayed for Data written represent data scanned in FalconStor VTL Data stored values represent the amount of unique data stored in the repository The Redundancy elimination ratio also referred to as the deduplication ratio represents this formula data scanned data stored The SIR Statistics display provides three ways to look at these values Repository usage Deduplication results SIR stati...

Page 59: ...ments You can identify how quickly you are using your repository disk space and when you are likely to need to add more Select a Unit of time from the drop down list to adjust the granularity of the graph Use the arrow buttons to scan through accumulated data Click Refresh to include data for deduplication activity that has occurred since the last refresh SIR statistics This section of the display...

Page 60: ...rmation about the physical devices that were used to create this VIT Reclaiming Disk Space During the reduplication process only single instances of unique data are passed to the deduplication repository The original virtual tape is replaced with a VIT pointing to deduplication storage Over time VITs can be erased formatted or overwritten by your backup application such as when a tape has expired ...

Page 61: ...s via iSCSI FalconStor VTL supports a many to one configuration where multiple FalconStor VTL systems replicate to a single system which would be the case where remote offices replicate data to a corporate data center Data duplicated across remote sites is deduplicated at the central site enabling only globally unique data to be stored If a disaster occurs and the replica is needed the administrat...

Page 62: ...ically creates a local virtual index tape LVIT and puts it in the target server s virtual vault the LVIT is now a replica of the source VIT and contains pointers to the replicated blocks of data Replication is complete when you see the LVIT in the target server s virtual vault The name of the LVIT corresponds to the name of the FVIT The image below shows the FalconStor VTL target server with FVITs...

Page 63: ...ication between the nTier VTL appliances by adding the target server to the primary server using the console for the nTier VTL appliance Replication to another nTier VTL appliance Before you can configure replication for a tape you must enable replication between the two nTier VTL appliances by adding the VTL target server to the source server To do this 1 In the VTL Console right click the server...

Page 64: ...plica the nTier VTL appliance to which data is replicated Configure replication for virtual index tapes You must enable replication for each virtual index tape VIT that you want to replicate A virtual tape for which replication has been configured for replication is referred to as a primary virtual tape The VIT must have Yes status refer to Virtual index tape status The VIT must be in a slot in a ...

Page 65: ...te a VIT for which auto archive has been enabled 1 On the source server right click on a VIT and select Replication Add Each VIT can be replicated to a single target 2 Indicate whether you want to use remote replication or local replication 3 Select the target server ...

Page 66: ...nd repeat every n hours Indicate when replication should begin and how often it should be repeated Be sure to allow enough time for deduplication to complete before replication should begin If a tape has data that has not been deduplicated the data will not be replicated If a replication is already occurring when the next time interval is reached the new replication request will be ignored ...

Page 67: ...ore timing out and how often it should attempt to retry before skipping a scheduled replication 7 Indicate if you want to use the Compress Data and or Encrypt Data options remote replication only The Compress Data option provides enhanced throughput during replication by compressing the data stream The Encrypt Data option secures data transmission over the network during replication These options ...

Page 68: ...s you select which physical device s to use and lets you designate how much space to allocate from each Express automatically creates the replica for you from available hard disk segments If you select Custom you will see the following screens Note If you select Express all data on the target will be overwritten ...

Page 69: ...s add the disks one at a time After selecting the first disk an option lets you add more disks Indicate how much space to allocate from this disk The segment must be at least the same size as the virtual tape Click Add More if you need to add another physical disk to this replica resource This displays the physical device selection screen to select another disk ...

Page 70: ...ated There are several ways to check replication status Replication tab of the primary virtual tape displays the policies set for replication as well as the replication status Note Once you create your replication configuration you should not change the hostname of the primary server If you do you will need to recreate your replication configuration Notes If there is no FC connection between the s...

Page 71: ...or administrators managing multiple servers that either replicate data or are the recipients of replicated data The report can display information about existing replication configurations only or it can include information about replication configurations that have been deleted you must select to view all replication activities in the database The following is a sample Replication Status Report A...

Page 72: ... and click OK Suspending resuming the replication schedule You can suspend future replications from automatically being triggered by your replication policies This will not stop a replication that is currently in progress You can still manually start the replication process while the schedule is suspended To suspend resume replication right click a primary virtual tape and select Replication Suspe...

Page 73: ... closes when the process is complete When the target server is not reachable If the replication target server is not reachable you must manually remove information about the source server from the target server 1 On the target server locate the file etc iscsi conf 2 In iscsi conf do a search for the IP address of the source server 3 Delete these rows DiscoveryAddress source server IP address Usern...

Page 74: ...he primary virtual tape on the primary server and the virtual tape replica FVIT on the target server Or 1 Navigate to the Replica Resources object on the target server 2 Right click the FVIT and select Delete 3 Click OK to confirm the configuration changes The confirmation screen displays the names of the primary virtual tape on the primary server and the virtual tape replica FVIT on the target se...

Page 75: ...the Replica Resources object on the target server 2 Right click the FVIT and select Delete 3 Click OK to confirm the configuration changes The confirmation screen displays the names of the primary virtual tape on the primary server and the virtual tape replica FVIT on the target server ...

Page 76: ...ms iSCSI target mode is supported for the following platforms Windows refer also to Controlling backup server access to the nTier appliance Linux Solaris Use of Open iSCSI for backup server setup is also supported Managing iSCSI clients On FalconStor VTL storage appliances iSCSI is enabled by default and the SAN client Everyone_iSCSI has already been created This special SAN client does not corres...

Page 77: ...alled on each backup server iSCSI initiator software hardware is available from many sources For Windows servers you can download software from Microsoft s website http www microsoft com windowsserversystem storage iscsi mspx Prepare client initiators to access your nTier appliance Before a backup server the client initiator can communicate with a nTier VTL appliance the two entities need to mutua...

Page 78: ...and indicate if the client is a mobile client If this is not a mobile client continue with step 5 below A mobile client is simply a username and password used to authenticate to the nTier VTL appliance from any iSCSI backup server A mobile user can access authorized iSCSI targets from any host as long as it has the proper credentials Note that when you right click a mobile client in the VTL Consol...

Page 79: ... nTier VTL appliance as a Target Portal using the iSCSI initiator on your backup server select the initiator name associated with the backup server s IP address or click Add and add an initiator name manually the IP address will not display An available initiator shows a green dot Stationary iSCSI clients correspond to specific iSCSI client initiators and consequently the client machines that own ...

Page 80: ...CSI users or select Add to create a new user More than one username password pair can be assigned to the client but they will be useful only when coming from a machine with an authorized initiator name 7 For unauthenticated access select Allow unauthenticated access The nTier VTL appliance will recognize the client as long as it has an authorized initiator name 8 Click Finish when you are done The...

Page 81: ... select Yes to assign a resource virtual tape library or drive to the target Continue with step 2 under Using a client object If you select No refer to Assigning virtual tape libraries to backup servers at a later time for information on assigning virtual resources to client targets Log the client onto the target The following steps are for the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator If you are using a differen...

Page 82: ...s select the Target Identifier and then click Log Off If you selected the option to Automatically restore this connection the iSCSI target is listed in the Persistent Targets tab 5 Click OK to close the iSCSI Initiator Setup using Open iSCSI This example adds a backup server running CentOS 5 Prepare the iSCSI initiator 1 On the client side type the following command to find out the initiator name ...

Page 83: ...l 00 Id 00 Lun 01 Vendor IBM Model ULTRIUM TD3 Rev 2150 Type Sequential Access ANSI SCSI revision 03 Host scsi2 Channel 00 Id 00 Lun 02 Vendor IBM Model ULTRIUM TD3 Rev 2150 Type Sequential Access ANSI SCSI revision 03 7 To log out type the following command iscsiadm m node T iqn 2000 03 com falconstor vtl h128 36 fsad 1 p 172 30 128 36 3260 u 8 To remove the discovery entry in the database type t...

Page 84: ... 4 3 and type the following commands make clean make make install 4 Edit the etc iscsi conf file If you are not using CHAP add the following line to the end of the file DiscoveryAddress IP address of VTL server For example DiscoveryAddress 192 10 10 1 If you are using CHAP add the following lines to the end of the file DiscoveryAddress IP address of VTL server OutgoingUsername CHAP username Outgoi...

Page 85: ... sun 01 f503a3fbffff 46f9fdb6 Initiator node alias h42 72 Login Parameters Default Configured Header Digest NONE Data Digest NONE Authentication Type NONE RADIUS Server NONE RADIUS access unknown 2 On the nTier VTL appliance create a client using the client s initiator node name and assign the library to the client 3 On the client side type the following command to add the discovery address root h...

Page 86: ... Vendor SPECTRA Product ULTIRUM3 OS Device Name dev rmt 0 Add your iSCSI client Refer to Add your iSCSI client Create targets for the iSCSI client to log onto Refer to Create targets for the iSCSI client to log onto Log the client onto the target Refer to Log the client onto the target Disable iSCSI To disable iSCSI for a nTier VTL appliance right click on the server object in the VTL Console and ...

Page 87: ...ke advantage of the extensive FalconStor VTL storage capabilities such as virtualization replication and security FalconStor VTL supports all Fibre Channel topologies including point to point fabric and arbitrated loop This chapter provides configuration information for Fibre Channel Target Mode as well as the associated Fibre Channel SAN equipment i e switch T3 etc As you can see from the illustr...

Page 88: ...nfiguration changes 1 When the QLogic Corporation notice appears onscreen press Ctrl Q to enter the QLogic Fibre Channel card configuration utility You will see a list of adapters if you have more than one card in your machine 2 Hit Enter to select the card you wish to configure and then select Configuration Settings 3 Select Advanced Adapter Settings from the Configuration Settings menu 4 Set the...

Page 89: ...to Loop Only If you are using a QLogic 2200 HBA the topology is set through the QLogic BIOS Configure Settings Extended Firmware settings Connection Option Loop Only Fabric topology When setting up nTier VTL appliances and Clients on a Fibre Channel network using a Fabric topology we recommend that you set the topology that each HBA will use to log into your switch to Point to Point Only If you ar...

Page 90: ...or ports on the backup server are already zoned with the VTL target port and are properly connected powered up they are listed automatically and you can select specific initiators If only one initiator WWPN is found FalconStor VTL selects it for you and the selection dialog is not displayed If no WWPNs are listed the backup server is not currently zoned with the VTL appliance Enable Volume Set Add...

Page 91: ...s current configuration and environment The technical information needed to diagnose the reported problem is then sent to a system administrator Note that if a trigger report is bigger than 4 Kb the report will be zipped and attached as a file to the CallHome email The report text will be replaced in the email body with an informational message to inform the user about the attachment With CallHome...

Page 92: ...of emails sent by CallHome Target Email Specify the email address of the account that will receive emails from CallHome This will be used in the To field of emails sent by CallHome CC Email Specify any other email accounts that should receive emails from CallHome Subject Specify the text that should appear on the subject line Interval Specify the time period between each activation of CallHome 3 O...

Page 93: ...sh 10 FalconStor VTL memory management check This script checks to see if the maximum number of memory pages has been set If not CallHome sends an email report If it is set the script checks the available memory pages If the percentage is lower than the specified percentage default is 10 CallHome sends an email report memchk sh 95 Memory check This script takes in a percentage as the parameter and...

Page 94: ...points for example home could be used in another trigger defaultipchk sh eth0 10 1 1 1 NIC IP address check This script checks that the IP address for the specified NIC matches what is specified here If it does not CallHome sends an email report You can add multiple defaultipcheck sh triggers for different NICs for example eth1 could be used in another trigger Be sure to specify the correct IP add...

Page 95: ...ce information This information is included in the info file Fibre Channel Fibre Channel information Log File The system message file messages stores all nTier FalconStor VTL appliance messages including status and error messages Loaded Kernel Loaded kernel modules This information is included in the info file Network Configuration Network configuration information is included in the info file Ker...

Page 96: ...cted by CallHome On the next tab you can enter terms to ignore thereby eliminating entries that match these general types yet can still be disregarded The resulting subset contains all entries for which CallHome needs to send out email reports Each line is a regular expression The regular expression rules follow the pattern for AWK a standard Unix utility 7 On the System Log Ignore tab indicate th...

Page 97: ...n existing trigger highlight the trigger and click Edit For a new trigger click Add New script program The trigger can be a shell script or a program Java C etc If you create a new script program you must add it in the Console so that CallHome knows of its existence To do this 1 Right click on your nTier VTL appliance and select CallHome Trigger tab 2 Click Add Return codes Return codes determine ...

Page 98: ...irect its output to the environment variable IPSTORCLHMLOG Sample script The following is the content of the FalconStor VTL status check trigger vtlstatus sh bin sh RET 0 if f etc is sh then etc is sh else echo Installation is not complete Environment profile is missing in etc echo exit 0 don t want to report error here so have to exit with error code 0 fi ISHOME bin vtl status grep STOPPED VTLCLH...

Page 99: ...read only user that you have created with FalconStor VTL previously Make sure the user name and password exist on the server by opening a local session The password is case sensitive Make sure the Caps Lock key is not pressed on the keyboard From the machine where VTL Console is installed open a SSH session to the nTier VTL appliance Log on to the server with the same user name and pass word If th...

Page 100: ...uests coming from the Console Also try starting a second instance of the Console If the second Console cannot establish connections that means the server is busy with previous RPC operations If this is the case you should wait awhile and retry your action after the current processing finishes If the problem persists or the server is not really busy contact technical support Physical resources The ...

Page 101: ... that was used to create the virtual tape is missing the tape s status will be offline missing segment From the VTL Console determine which physical resources comprise this virtual drive To do this highlight the tape in the tree and check the Layout tab or look under the Storage Devices object for the icon For each physical device check that It is turned on It still exists has not been removed It ...

Page 102: ...the client machine s system console type rmmod FC HBA driver and insmod FC HBA driver This unloads and reloads the driver for the FC HBA and causes Linux to rescan all devices on that HBA allowing it to recognize any new device size If this method is not feasible such as when the boot disk is running on the FC HBA contact technical support Incorrect size check Event Log If the Console does not sho...

Page 103: ...annel client and select Properties Record initiator and target WWPNs Highlight the Physical Resources object and locate the HBA that matches the recorded target HBA WWPN Highlight the SNS table tab for that HBA and look for the WWPN that matches the recorded initiator WWPN If the WWPN is not correct unassign the client and assign it again using the appropriate mapping type If multiple HBAs exist e...

Page 104: ... systems You can use the mt or tar commands to access the tape device for example mt f dev rmt 0 status OS cannot access device If the operating system cannot access the device you need to troubleshoot virtual device access Go to the storage to verify that it is not in error or in an abnormal state The assigned devices have to be in read write mode Check the Event Log or syslog for message indicat...

Page 105: ...to reinstall FalconStor VTL or even the operating before you can use these procedures Previously saved configuration You can restore a nTier VTL appliance configuration from a file that was created using the Save Configuration option This is for disaster recovery purposes and should not be used in day to day operation of the server Restoring a configuration overwrites existing virtual device and c...

Page 106: ...ent barcodes Otherwise the import operation fails Use the Inventory feature in the Console to get the updated bar codes and status from the physical library Check physical tape library and device status Make sure the physical tape library does not show any abnormal situation For example the tape drives may require cleaning or tapes may need to be moved to the proper location Check element address ...

Page 107: ...a snapshot of your server s current configuration and environment You should not create an X ray unless you are requested to do so by your technical support representative To create an X ray file 1 In the Console right click on your nTier VTL appliance and select X Ray 2 Based on the discussion with your Technical Support representative select the options you want to include and set the file name ...

Page 108: ...aintain a high level of security unnecessary ports have been disabled The only ports required by FalconStor VTL are TCP port 11576 Used for VTL Console to nTier VTL appliance management communication UDP port 11577 Used for IP replication UDP port 161 Used for SNMP traps TCP port 161 Used for SNMP traps TCP port 3260 Used for iSCSI ...

Page 109: ...New script 94 Output 95 Return codes 94 Sample script 95 X ray 91 Client 5 22 87 Fibre Channel 16 84 iSCSI 12 73 Troubleshooting 100 Compression Disable 50 Enable 50 Software 50 Configuration Auto Save 47 Save 18 Troubleshooting 102 Console 5 96 Administrator Management 25 Install 10 Launch 11 21 Log 21 Navigation 21 Options 24 Overview 20 Troubleshooting 97 Copy mode 44 D Database 22 De duplicati...

Page 110: ... 81 83 Log client onto target 82 83 Prepare iSCSI initiator 81 82 Open iSCSI 79 Add iSCSI client 80 Prepare iSCSI initiator 79 Solaris Configuration with iSCSI only 82 Add iSCSI client 83 Create targets 83 Log client onto target 83 Prepare iSCSI initiator 82 Targets 73 Users 74 Windows Add iSCSI client 75 Configuration 74 Create targets 77 Disable 83 Enable 13 74 Log client onto target 78 Prepare ...

Page 111: ...ation 18 Search Tapes 24 Security Ports 105 System 105 Server Properties 51 Server configuration Restore 49 102 Save 18 47 Setup Components 9 Confirm successful backup 18 Connect appliance to network 10 Create and run backup jobs 17 Ports 10 Single Instance Repository SIR 53 SIR resources 22 SIR statistics Data stored 55 Data written 55 Redundancy elimination ratio 55 SNMP 51 Traps 51 Statistics R...

Page 112: ...on 109 VTL defaults Change appliance defaults 28 Change de duplication properties 30 Change default hostname 30 Change default IP address 28 Change default password 30 VTL Storage Appliance 5 X X ray CallHome 91 Troubleshooting 104 ...

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