MediaAgents
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Overview
MediaAgent Operations
MediaAgent Properties
Important Considerations
The MediaAgent manages the transmission of data between clients and backup media.
There can be more than one MediaAgent within a CommCell.
The software supports MediaAgents on several Operating Systems, including support
for MediaAgents in a clustered environment. (See
System Requirements - MediaAgent
for a list of supported MediaAgents and their requirements. See
Support Information - Installation
for information on cluster support for MediaAgents.)
See MediaAgent Deployment for information
on installing the MediaAgent software.
Once installed, MediaAgents are displayed in the CommCell Browser as a sub-level
under Storage Resources. You can perform several operations from the MediaAgent
level and modify the properties associated with a MediaAgent. These are described
in the following sections.
View Log
You can view the log files generated by a MediaAgent. The files that reside on
a given computer may differ depending on the role of the computer in the CommCell
(CommServe, MediaAgent, Client). A CommServe computer contains only the CommServe
log files. A computer that is both a CommServe and a MediaAgent contains the log
files of both entities. See Log Files for
a detailed explanation of viewing log files.
Send log
You can send the log files either from the CommCell Console, or from the Command
line to email recipients as mails, or to a remote computer. You can also upload
the log files to any existing FTP server. See
Log Files for a detailed explanation of
sending log files.
You can scan the MediaAgent for any new hardware, and changes to existing
hardware configurations, from the CommCell Console. This triggers a device
detection at the operating system level for all corresponding CommCell
computers, and reports the latest hardware configurations to the MediaAgent. See
Scan a MediaAgent for Hardware
Changes for step-by-step instructions.
This option allows you to install updates from the CommServe Update Cache or
a designated update cache on a remote client if
Multicache
Configuration is set up for use. See Initiate the Installation of Updates from a Client or MediaAgent Computer
for step-by-step instructions to install updates.
To uninstall a MediaAgent from a CommServe, use the uninstall procedure as described
in Appendix A, Removing the MediaAgent Software.
If the uninstall fails to cleanup the MediaAgent information from the CommServe,
use the De-configure option. Note that the De-configure option will not remove
the files and registry entries associated with this MediaAgent.
The De-configure option performs the following tasks:
- Cleans up all the information about the MediaAgent in the CommServe database
- Releases the license associated with the MediaAgent
- Releases the licenses associated with the libraries or stand-alone drives
attached to the MediaAgent. However, licenses associated with a library whose
media changer is not controlled by this MediaAgent (e.g. SAN devices, shared
libraries) will not be released.
For a detailed explanation on de-configuring MediaAgents, see
Deconfiguring Agents.
Alerts allow you to set e-mail notifications to MediaAgent related events. For
a detailed explanation of Alerts, see Alerts and
Monitoring.
The MediaAgent properties can be viewed from the General tab of
the MediaAgent Properties dialog box.
Names
General information includes the MediaAgent name, host name, the name
of the CommServe to which the MediaAgent is attached, and whether the MediaAgent
is installed in the Physical or in the Virtual machine in a clustered environment.
You can change the name of the Client/MediaAgent computer if the Host
name is changed. See Name
Management for more information.
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Do not use spaces when specifying a new name for the Client.
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Host Information
Information includes the MediaAgent's operating system and platform.
If necessary you can use the description field to record additional information
about the MediaAgent. Click on NDMP Properties to edit the details
of the NDMP Server host filer.
This feature allows you to set the maximum number of concurrent
read/write operations to the MediaAgent. This value controls the maximum
number of data streams that can be managed by the MediaAgent. See
Set the Maximum
Number of Parallel Data Transfer Operations for a MediaAgent for
step-by-step instructions.
The default number of concurrent read/write operations to a
MediaAgent is 25. This value can be set between 1 and 75. If
Optimize for Concurrent
LAN Backup option is enabled from the
Control tab,
then the default is set to 100 and this value can be set to a maximum of
200 (only on Windows and Unix).
The integrity of data protection operations can be ensured by enabling Data
Integrity Validation
at the MediaAgent. Data Integrity Validation can be used to verify the data stored
in the media as well as the data transferred over network. See
Data Integrity Validation
for more information.
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MediaAgent Control
The following options for controlling the MediaAgent is provided:
- Enable or disable the MediaAgent
You can enable or disable
a MediaAgent. When a MediaAgent is disabled, it is not used, even if
it is physically available. (See
Enable (or Disable) a MediaAgent
for step-by-step instructions.)
- Status of the MediaAgent
The status of the MediaAgent is
displayed to indicate whether the MediaAgent software is online or offline,
and if offline, the reason for the offline status is also displayed.
The system checks for the status of the MediaAgent and updates the
information based on the values established in the LAN-Free MediaAgent
liveliness check interval in Minutes and LAN MediaAgent liveliness
check interval in Minutes options from the
Media Management Configuration (Service Configuration) dialog box
available in the Control Panel.
- Mark MediaAgent
Offline for Maintenance
You can enable this option when you wish to perform routine or other
maintenance tasks on devices. This option is available in the MediaAgent,
Library and Drive levels and you can appropriately enable them where needed.
Data protection, data recovery and auxiliary copy operations will not use the
associated MediaAgent/Library/Drive, depending on where the option is enabled.
However, other administrative tasks on the devices such as Full Scan, Drive
Cleaning, Verify Media etc. can be performed, if required.
When this option is enabled, the system will automatically select an alternate resource (MediaAgent/Library/Drive) if
Alternate Data
Paths (GridStor) is enabled. If alternate resources are not available, data
protection, data recovery and auxiliary copy will remain in the
Waiting state in the Job Controller and
will automatically resume when you re-enable the appropriate
MediaAgent/Library/Drive.
See Mark MediaAgent/Library/Drive
Offline for Maintenance for step-by-step instructions.
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Enable Application level Error Recovery during backups for write errors
You can enable this option to indicate that the MediaAgent should perform
error recovery by readjusting the tape position and re-write the last
block when IO error occurs. This option maybe enabled when data protection
jobs fail due to SCSI related write errors in the library.
However, note that extreme caution must be exercised while selecting
this option as it severely impacts the performance of the MediaAgent.
As most write errors are due to hardware failures, steps must be
taken to fix the hardware instead of enabling this option. This option
may be temporarily enabled to ensure that the current data protection
jobs are successful until the hardware is fixed.
Note that the error recovery attempts may not be successful if the
hardware errors persists.
- Data Transfer
Optimize for Concurrent
LAN Backups
This option can be enabled when the MediaAgent is used for concurrent data
protection operations from a large number of clients. For example, if you have
25 clients concurrently using the MediaAgent for 50 or more data transfer
streams in a specific operation window, it is recommended that you enable this
option Enabling this option will help to optimize the Operating System
resources on the MediaAgent.
See Maximum
number of parallel data transfer operations for the maximum number
of parallel read/write operations with the Optimize for Concurrent LAN
Backups option enabled.
See MediaAgents
- Supported Features, Agents and Devices for information on the
MediaAgents that support this option.
See Optimize the
MediaAgent for Concurrent LAN Backups for step-by-step instructions.
- Device Detection
Automatic
Update of SCSI ID during live operation
In the SAN environment, the SCSI ID of a device may get changed
due to a HBA failover or if the a hardware component in the SAN is reset.
In such a situation, read/write requests to the media in the device
may fail, resulting in job failures. However, if this option is enabled,
the system will automatically scan the device and update the SCSI ID
and the job will be re-tried in the established retry interval.
This option also includes the following sub-options:
- SCSI/SAN device scan interval n hour(s)
This option
specifies the time interval that must be used for successive retry
operations for SCSI ID updates. For example, if a SCSI ID update
is performed after a read/write failure and a second read/write
failure occurs almost immediately or within the specified time interval,
the system will not perform the SCSI ID update. The system will
scan for SCSI ID updates only when a error occurs after the specified
time interval. It is recommended that the time interval be set to
30 minutes or more, as running jobs could go into pending,
when the SCSI ID is updated.
- Mark drive inaccessible on error and perform status check
according to device scan interval
When enabled, this option
marks the drive controller offline when the SCSI ID for a device
is changed. (This can be viewed from the Drive Properties - Drive
Controller tab, where the Drive Accessible will be displayed
as No.)
The device detection will be performed once every 24 hours. This
property can be modified using the SCSI/SAN device scan interval
n hours(s) option in the MediaAgent Properties. Note that if
the value established in MediaAgent Properties is less than
24 hours, the system automatically defaults to 24 hours.
If you want to perform this operation more frequently create
the
nDisabledDriveDetectIntervalMin
registry key. Once created,
this registry key will override the setting established in the
MediaAgent Properties.
The device detection will be repeated for 7 days. If these
drives are not accessible even after 7 days, the drives will be
marked as accessible. (If the drive continues to have a problem,
the subsequent job accessing the drive will once again cause it
to be marked as inaccessible.) If necessary the
nDisabledDriveMaxDetectionRetryHours registry keys can be
created to change the number of days the device detection will be
repeated.
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On NetWare MediaAgents both these keys
must be manually created with a value greater than 0 to
enable this feature. |
- Native Driver Support
To communicate with the tape devices, you can use the pass-through driver
provided by the MediaAgent, or the native drivers provided by the operating
system. When this option is selected the native driver is used. This
option is supported by all UNIX MediaAgents. By default, this option
is enabled on all Unix MediaAgents. Disable this option, if you do not
want to use the native drivers.
See Also:
Send pass-thru commands to Atape
When using native driver support, use this option to enable MediaAgent to send pass-through commands to Atape
device drivers.
- Automatically detect WORM Tape Media
When enabled, this
option automatically detects WORM media when it is used in a drive.
This option must be enabled if you plan to use WORM media in the libraries
attached to the MediaAgent. (Check the drive manufacturer's documentation
to ensure that both the drive model and firmware must support the usage
of WORM media.)
- Enable retry on network errors
When enabled, this option
allows you to set the retry options in case of network errors.
See Enable/Disable
Robust Network Layer for step-by-step instructions. See
Robust Network Layer
for more details.
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You can view or modify the following information associated with the
MediaAgent’s index cache:
- Index Retention Criteria
- Index Cache Directory
A MediaAgent’s Index cache information be viewed from the Index Cache
tab of the MediaAgent Properties dialog box.
For a detailed explanation of a MediaAgent's Index Cache, see
Index Cache.
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The Version tab of the MediaAgent Properties dialog box
displays the version number of the MediaAgent software that is installed
on the MediaAgent computer. It also displays all post-release Service Packs
and Automatic Updates that may have been installed on the MediaAgent. It
also displays the location of the update information.
For a detailed explanation of the version information, see
Version.
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Security allows you to associate the MediaAgent with one or more CommCell
user groups.
For a detailed explanation of security, see
User Administration and Security.
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The Associated Storage Policy tab provides information about all
the storage policy and their copies associated with a MediaAgent. This information
is useful when you deconfigure a MediaAgent, as all the storage policy copies
associated with the MediaAgent can be re-pointed or deleted prior to deconfiguring
the MediaAgent. |
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Operations performed with this feature are recorded in the Audit Trail. See Audit Trail for more information.
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