Starwind with SCSI tape not available as device

[Steve Garry]

Hi,

Have an HP SCSI DAt drive on an XP Pro machine,which works fine with XP backup, but I can't see how to tell Starwind about this device, as it's not showing up anywhere else in XP. Can I use this device with starwind, or does it have to be visible as a "my computer" item for starwind to find it? If I can, how do I tell starwind how to find it? I want to be able to access it from another computer for backups


Thanks

Steve

[Guest]

Hi,

Have an HP SCSI DAt drive on an XP Pro machine,which works fine with XP backup, but I can't see how to tell Starwind about this device, as it's not showing up anywhere else in XP. Can I use this device with starwind, or does it have to be visible as a "my computer" item for starwind to find it? If I can, how do I tell starwind how to find it? I want to be able to access it from another computer for backups

Thanks

Steve

Hi Steve,

Yes, it's possible to share tape devices with StarWind.

Select the 'SPTI Device' radio button in the 'Add device' dialog and then type '\\.\Tape0' into the device name edit box.

If you have several tape devices installed so the names are \\.\Tape0, \\.\Tape1, \\.\Tape2, and so on.

[Val (staff)]

It was me in the previous reply. :)

[Steve Garry]

Valery,

Thanks for the information, I'm making progress, in that I can now see how I get to the device, but it's refusing to add it, and the error log is telling me that the problem is that my device has a maximum buffer length of 61440, and the software is trying to allocate larger.

I have tried changing the parameter in the conf file, and completely restarted the machine to try and make sure that it's taken the new parameter, but it's still failing, as if it has not seen the parameter correctly

Also, to avoid hassles with Norton Internet Security, am I safe to use the address that the host machine is set to, in order to make sure that the requests get through the firewall?

Any suggestions please?

If you need to see the config file, or the log, let me know an E-mail address, and I will send them on over

Thanks

Steve

[Val (staff)]

Valery,

Thanks for the information, I'm making progress, in that I can now see how I get to the device, but it's refusing to add it, and the error log is telling me that the problem is that my device has a maximum buffer length of 61440, and the software is trying to allocate larger.

I have tried changing the parameter in the conf file, and completely restarted the machine to try and make sure that it's taken the new parameter, but it's still failing, as if it has not seen the parameter correctly

Also, to avoid hassles with Norton Internet Security, am I safe to use the address that the host machine is set to, in order to make sure that the requests get through the firewall?

Any suggestions please?

If you need to see the config file, or the log, let me know an E-mail address, and I will send them on over

Thanks

Steve

Steve,

Please send me the log file and conf-file to valery@rocketdivision.com.

What tape device do you use?

Could you try setting MinBufferSize = "61440" in your StarWind.conf file?
At least it should allow the tape drive to be accessed by iSCSI initiators.

Your firewall software should allow TCP port 3260 for incoming iSCSI connections.

[Steve Garry]

Valery,

Thanks for the thoughts. To update you, I have now been able to get the tape device (HP 1537 DAT 12/24) to connect into Starwind, and been able to get to it from another machine using starport, so that side of it is resolved. The problem in the configuration file was that I had a leading space in the Maxbuffer statement, which was causing it to fail validation, once I found that, it was not so much trouble.

I now have to investigate a problem with the backup routine, which failed at the end of the file count routine as the device was about to start writing data to the tape, but I've not been able to find any error messages about why it failed yet, so I shall have to try that again in the morning, and see if I can get more details of the problem.

Thanks for the help, if I get any more information, I will come back to you.

Regards

Steve

[Steve Garry]

Valery,

A thought before I go any further with the investigation.

In the starwind manual, it makes the comment that the buffer size must also be changed in starport.sys if it is not the default. I cannot find a starport.sys file at the moment, where is it supposed to be, and what data do I need to change in that file. Also, can I edit the file, or is the modification to be made with a different program.

Sorry, I can't find this information in any of the help files.


The other thought I have had is if there are any settings needed to ensure that the tape response has been received from the host machine, to ensure that the 2 do not get out of sync. Is this a case where I need to use the CHAP protocol? A lot of this is very new to me, so I must ask you to excuse my lack of detailed knowledge of this area

Last question, in the starport forum, I noticed that there was a suggestion to another user who was experiencing problems with a tape drive that he should try the Microsoft iscsi interface. Is this available in XP pro, and if not, can it be downloaded at all?

thanks

Steve



Thanks

Steve

[Val (staff)]

Steve,

Yes, you can set the StarPort driver to report max request size less than 64KB.

The maximum StarPort's buffer size settings can be changed at the registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\StarPort\Parameters]
Value 'MaxBufferSize' (DWORD)
By default StarPort uses MaxBufferSize=65536

You can try setting MaxBufferSize = 61440 to be sure your tape device receives requests under 60k...
To apply changes just restart your initiator machine.

But please keep in mind that changing of MaxBufferSize is global to all StarPort's devices.
So setting MaxBufferSize too small can lead to performance degradation for other devices accessed with StarPort (like hard drives, CD/DVD burners, etc).

CHAP is nothing to do with data syncronization. It is used for authorisation purposes.
iSCSI protocol provides all needed syncronisation you asked about.

We've recommended to try MS iSCSI Initiator to find which software leads to the problem (StarWind or StarPort).

MS iSCSI initiator does the same things as our StarPort or any other iSCSI initiator does.
(FYI you can use StarWind with any other iSCSI initiator, as well as you can use StarPort to access any other iSCSI target.)
MS initiator is available for free from MS site.

Please let us know about your investigation.
Thank you in advance.

[Guest]

Steve,

But please keep in mind that changing of MaxBufferSize is global to all StarPort's devices.
So setting MaxBufferSize too small can lead to performance degradation for other devices accessed with StarPort (like hard drives, CD/DVD burners, etc).

Thanks for the extra information. I could see the global buffer size being an issue if I was also using other iSCSI devices, but at the moment, that's not an issue for me. The tape drive is an older unit, 1998, so not ancient, but certainly it predates the iSCSI concepts, so I may still run into issues with it.

I will of course let you know how the testing proceeds

Thanks for the fast responses

Steve

[Val (staff)]

Steve,

Ok. We will wait for your feedback.

[Steve Garry]

Valery,

Quick progress report, it seems that changing the buffer size in Starport has resolved the crash in NTBACKUP, in that I've just completed a test backup only of one disc, which ran to completion with no problems, I am now trying a backup with verify that also includes the system state, so there will be more than one session on the tape, and if that works, I shall then try a backup of a designated file, change the file, then perform a restore to ensure that I can get the data back from tape to the remote machine.

In the end, I've not needed to try anything other than Starwind and Starport, they seem to be working together very happily. I was using level 3 logging, I've now reverted to level 1 for this stage of the testing.

If all that works OK, and it's only time rather than technical issues, then it's working to the level I need it to.

I will report back to let you know how it proceeds, at the moment, I've seen nothing to make me think that it's not going to work.

Regards


Steve

[Steve Garry]

OK, update on the testing, I've hit a problem with the NTBACKUP which looks like it's the one reported in the starport forum, the backup seems to work fine, but as it then rewinds to start the verify, it throws an error that's not appearing in any of the logs at the moment.

Is there a starport log of any sort, and if there is, where is it, and how do I look at the levels of reporting?

I'm going to try the Microsoft initiator, and see if there's any difference, and take it from there

Cheers

Steve

[Val (staff)]

OK, update on the testing, I've hit a problem with the NTBACKUP which looks like it's the one reported in the starport forum, the backup seems to work fine, but as it then rewinds to start the verify, it throws an error that's not appearing in any of the logs at the moment.

Is there a starport log of any sort, and if there is, where is it, and how do I look at the levels of reporting?

I'm going to try the Microsoft initiator, and see if there's any difference, and take it from there

Cheers

Steve

Steve,

Thank you for the info.
It seems the problem is somewhere inside StarPort. :(

There is no log files for StarPort driver.

We are trying to find out the issue and provide our users with a working remote tape solution...

[Steve Garry]

[quote="valery (staff)]
Thank you for the info.
It seems the problem is somewhere inside StarPort.

There is no log files for StarPort driver.

We are trying to find out the issue and provide our users with a working remote tape solution...[/quote]


I'm going to live dangerously, and maybe point you in a different direction, in that I've just tried it with the microsoft initiator, and it's failing in that also, albeit with a slightly different message, and I have an error message in the Starwind log, which suggests it's at the host end of things that the problem is happening.

The log entry reads

12:38:16:375 (0xcfc) SPTI: '\\.\Tape0': DeviceIoControl failed: The parameter is incorrect. (code: 87).
12:38:16:375 (0xcfc) SPTI: '\\.\Tape0': IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT (before):
0000 2c 00 00 00 00 00 06 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 ,...............
0010 e0 a5 01 00 e8 43 0a 00 2c 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00 ðå..øC..,.......
0020 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
12:38:16:375 (0xcfc) SPTI: '\\.\Tape0': IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT (after):
0000 2c 00 00 00 00 00 06 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 ,...............
0010 e0 a5 01 00 e8 43 0a 00 2c 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00 ðå..øC..,.......
0020 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
12:40:50:343 (0xf18) ntsrv: Got SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP signal.
12:40:50:359 (0xf18) C[0x1115], LOGGED_IN: Event - SHUTDOWN.
12:40:50:359 (0xf18) C[0x1115], LOGOUT_REQUESTED: T11.
12:40:50:359 (0xcfc) C[0x1115], LOGOUT_REQUESTED: Event - LOGOUT.
12:40:50:359 (0xcfc) C[0x1115], IN_LOGOUT: T9/10.
12:40:50:359 (0xcd4) conf: Stop listening to control connections.
12:40:50:359 (0xa70) C[0x1115], IN_LOGOUT: Event - LOGOUT_ACCEPT.
12:40:50:359 (0xa70) C[0x1115], FREE: T13.
12:40:50:359 (0xcfc) S: iscsi:suas-tech.tape.tape0: 0 session(s) are opened, 1 more allowed.
12:40:50:359 (0xc88) Srv: Timeout 10 second(s)...
12:40:50:359 (0xc88) Srv: Shutdown completed.
12:40:50:359 (0xc88) S: the device '\\.\Tape0' is closed.


Two thoughts. Is there a timeout in the software that kills the request after a specified time if the device has not responded, in that if there is, it could be the case that due to the time for the tape rewind, it's time out period has already expired before the tape is ready.

Also, there seems to be some other issues in the log file, not sure if they are relevant or not. I'm also seeing the following reports in the logs


12:34:49:937 (0xcfc) T[0x102]: *ERROR* Exec: Incoming Command SscStatus (0x84) != SSC_STATUS_PENDING!

Hope this helps, if you need any more help with logs or details, come back to me, I've registered, and get E-mail warning as soon as it arrives, so can respond pretty quickly

Cheers

Steve

[Val (staff)]

Steve,

It seems the issue with MS initiator and StarWind is the MS software sends 64K requests to the remote tape device and these requests are failed by the tape device that supports only 60k.
I don't know maybe there is some way to force MS initiator to send requests less 64k...

Pleasew send me the log filewith LogLevel=3 (or it's part if the log is huge) where the *ERROR* message occures.

Thank you.