Using NV CLI commands to make standalone tape drive usage more seamless (4032722)

A tape drive without the communication layer of a medium changer does not have the capability to let NetVault know that a tape has been ejected or if a tape has been loaded. This can cause issues with backup jobs, that if NetVault is unaware a new tape has been loaded, or unloaded from the device, that the backup will hang waiting for media.

This will lead the user to often have to manually run a 'Check' on the drive from Device Management so NetVault will query the device and become aware of the media present.

There are a couple ways to make this more seamless:

Scenario A:

Tape Drive and backup server local. Before going to device and ejecting the media manually:

-Go into NetVault Device Management

-Right Click on Standalone Tape Drive

-Select 'Unload'

This will issue the command to unload the media via NetVault, so NetVault is aware of this command and it will then know when the tape is actually unloaded from the device.

Scenario B:

Tape Drive is not local to backup server and tapes are manually ejected from device by 3rd party. You need the drive to be ready for the next backup and do not want to manually have to run the check drive command from the GUI. Some solutions are:

a) Create a script from the NetVault CLI syntax and incorporate in the pre-script of your backup jobs. This script will check the drive for media prior to the backup and update the drive contents if necessary.

NetVault Command Line Interface Guide - "nvcheckdrive" command

Checks the status of a drive. For example, it can be used to check the status of a drive that was taken offline for some reason. If successful, the specified drive will be returned to online status so that it is available to NVBU for future jobs.

Syntax
nvcheckdrive -servername <Server Name> [-drivename <Drive Name>]
[-libraryname <Library Name>] [-drivenumber <Drive Number>]
Options
● -servername – Name of the NVBU Server that is to administer the job. If the job is to be administered by a remote NVBU Server, this option must be used to name that specific server. If the local instance of the NVBU Server is to be used to administer the job, this option can be left out of the syntax. The server name is case sensitive.

● -libraryname – Name of the target library.

● -drivename – Name of the target drive that is to be checked.

● -drivenumber – Drive number of the drive that is to be checked.

Note: If the -libraryname option is chosen to denote a library, then the -drivename or -drivenumber option must be used to specify the target drive.

Examples:
● Check the status of Standalone Drive “D-1” that is locally attached to the NVBU Server:

nvcheckdrive -drivename D-1
● Check the status of “Drive2” in library “NVLibrary” that is locally attached to an NVBU Client “NVCLIENT1”

nvcheckdrive -servername NVCLIENT1 -libraryname NVLibrary -drivename Drive2
● Check the status of drive 2 in library “NVLib2” that is locally attached to a remote NVBU Server “NVSERVER2”

nvcheckdrive -servername NVSERVER2 -libraryname NVLib2 -drivenumber 2

You can also use the script "nvdeviceeject" to run as a post-script after a backup to have the media automatically ejected from the drive to prepare it for the next media to be loaded into the drive. See syntax and examples below:

Removes a piece of media from the specified drive.
 
Command: nvdeviceject
Syntax
nvdeviceeject -devicename <Device Name>
[-servername <Server Name>]
[-librarydrivenumber <Drive Number>] [-wait]
Options
● -devicename – Name of the target device or library.

● -servername – Name of the NVBU Server to which the device is added. When you run this command on the NVBU Server, this option can be omitted. The Server name is case sensitive.

● -librarydrivenumber – Drive number of the target drive in the library.

● -wait – Add this option to tell NVBU to wait until this task has completed before moving forward.

Notes
● It is necessary to use the -librarydrivenumber option to specify the target drive if the -devicename option is used to denote a library.

● The device names can be ascertained by inspecting the logs for the backup job.

Using these commands as pre and post-scripts can make the usage of a standalone tape drive much more seamless and save valuable time in managing your media.