Silo Device Management

You can use the Backup administration program or the nsradmin program to do many of the device management tasks. For some tasks, you must enter a command at the system prompt.

Defining a Silo Device

If you add a new device to the silo and you want Backup to recognize and use the device, you can use one of two methods to reconfigure your silo to access the new device.

How to Define a Silo Device (jbconfig)

1. Become root on the Backup server or storage node machine that uses the silo.

2. Delete the silo definition.

   Use either the Backup administration program or the nsradmin program.

3. Run the jb_config program to reconfigure the silo.

   Use the same name for the silo as before, and add the additional device.

How to Define a Silo Device (nsradmin -c)

1. Become root on the Backup server or storage node machine that uses the silo.

2. Enter nsradmin -c (visual mode) to edit the silo definition.

   1. Select Dynamic and Hidden from the Options menu.

   2. Select nsr jukebox.

   3. Select Edit.

3. Add the new device name to the Devices attribute.

   You must enter a comma between the device names.

4. In the Number Devices attribute, increase the number of devices by one.

5. Add a null string with comma to each of the following attributes, before the final semi-colon (,""):

   1. Loaded Volumes

   2. Loaded Barcodes

   3. Loaded Slots

6. Add the name of the new device in the STL Device Names attribute.

   Surround the device name with quotation marks.

7. Add the following entry to the Allocated Devices attribute:

   ,No

Example: Defining a Silo Device

The following examples show selected nsradmin attributes before and after you add a device.

Before:

devices: /op1;
number devices: 1;
allocated devices: No;
loaded volumes: "";
loaded bar codes: "";
loaded slots: "";
STL device names: "0,0,2,0";

After:

devices: /op1, /op2;
number devices: 2;
allocated devices: No, No;
loaded volumes: "", "";
loaded bar codes: "", "";
loaded slots: "", "";
STL device names: "0,0,2,0", "0,0,2,1";

If you define multiple devices in a silo for Backup to use, you do not need to specify them in any particular order in the Jukeboxes resource. The only restriction is that the list of device names in the Devices attribute must be in the correct order with respect to the list in the STL Device Names attribute.

Shared Devices

The basic elements of device sharing have been implemented in Backup. However, due to current limitations in the SCSI hardware on Backup platforms, none of the device-sharing functions have been implemented. If you issue device reservation commands there are no errors, but the devices are not reserved. The STL Device Sharing and STL Device Reservation attributes in the Backup administration program and nsradmin have no effect on the behavior of Backup.

Device Cleaning

Do not enable automated cleaning for the silo in Backup. Refer to the documentation for your silo management software to find out how to clean devices in your silo. You cannot use the Backup automated device cleaning in a silo because it depends on fixed slot numbers.