Getting VTL Free working

StarWind VTL, VTL Free, VTL Appliance

Moderators: anton (staff), art (staff), Max (staff), Anatoly (staff)

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AllanB
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:36 pm

Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:22 am

I have a question regarding how to get VTL free working. The goal is to get Backup Exec to think there are a physical tape drive present.

The setup is as follows:

WMWare Workstation player 15.1.0
Windows Server 2016 Standard Evaluation 1607 14393.3181
Backup Exec Server Trial 20.4 rev 1188
StarWind Virtual SAN v8 b13182_R9 (with a StarWind_Virtual_Tape_Library_Free_License_Key.swk)

Because the free license only permits configuration via powershell the things I have tried is from the webpage http://get-cmd.com/?p=5249. Those commands work and I can connect and so forth so then I tried different powershell scripts from StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWindX\Samples\powershell folder but here is where it goes south.

For example:

CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1 -> ends with "Method invocation failed because [System.__ComObject] does not contain a method named 'CreateTape'."
AddVirtualTape.ps1 -> Device 'VTL1' not found
RemoveVirtualTape.ps1 -> Removing tape...Method invocation failed because [System.__ComObject] does not contain a method named 'RemoveTape'.

After trying a few scripts I have somehow managed to create some sort of VTL (according to the console), but it shows as "vtl1 (Not licenced)"

So my question is. What to do next?
Oleg(staff)
Staff
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:52 am

Wed Sep 04, 2019 8:30 am

Hi AllanB,
Could you please collect and share the logs?
Please use this tool for logs collection.
AllanB
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:36 pm

Wed Sep 04, 2019 4:39 pm

Of course, here it is. Because of the upload limit of 256KiB I had to extract the zip-file and compress it with WinRar.
Attachments
WIN-DSTLGI898E9 20190902-211529.rar
(203.62 KiB) Downloaded 761 times
Oleg(staff)
Staff
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:52 am

Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:26 am

Thank you for the logs.

Do you have folder c:\starwind ?
*** VtlPlugin::sscControlRequest: VTL: Copy of Header pattern 'C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\VTL\HP_MSL8096_LTO8.vtlp' to 'C:\starwind\vtl1.swdsk' failed (err 3)!
Do you have folder c: \starwind? Because error 3 is a path not found
Could you please also clean up these strings in StarWind.cfg file:
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
<device name="vtl1" file="My Computer\C\starwind\vtl1.swdsk"/>
AllanB
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:36 pm

Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:05 pm

It is working better now. I uploaded a screenshot of what it looks like now. My observations so far:

C:\starwind must exist prior to running CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1
AddVirtualTape.ps1 has $deviceName="VTL1". When I change to $deviceName="vtl1" it works.

The drive/device is still grey though.

Is it supposed to show up in Device Manager as a tape drive when it is working?
Attachments
Console.png
Console.png (34.19 KiB) Viewed 17246 times
Oleg(staff)
Staff
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:52 am

Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:09 am

Could you please collect and send us the logs one more time, after changes you did?
AllanB
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:36 pm

Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:05 pm

After starting from scratch I came up with a working solution. Here is what I did:

1. Add and setup an extra virtual HDD (perhaps unnessesary).
2. Install StarWind software with default settings. Answer yes to questions.
3. On the question where to set the default storage pool. Select the extra HDD (perhaps unnecessary).
3. Check Starwind Management Console that there are a server (127.0.0.1) port 3261 setup.
4. Create an empty folder C:\starwind
4. Open starwind powershell and change path to "C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWindX\Samples\powershell"
5. Run CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1
6. Check Starwind Management Console that there are now a targetvtl1 and a vtl1 device created.
7. Open iSCSI Initiator.
8. Goto Discovery tab and Press Discover Portal button and enter 127.0.0.1 and press Advanced button. Local Adapter: Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Initiator IP: Default
9. Goto Targets tab and select the new target and press Connect.
10. Leave default settings and press OK
11. Download HPE StoreEver Tape Drivers for Microsoft Windows. Extract to folder.
12. Open Device Manager and update drivers on each of the newly found tape devices.

Everything is working perfectly. Thank you for your help.
Attachments
Console working setup.png
Console working setup.png (32.99 KiB) Viewed 17164 times
Oleg(staff)
Staff
Posts: 568
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:52 am

Mon Sep 23, 2019 8:57 am

Thank you for sharing your experience.
apexit
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:01 pm

Wed Nov 27, 2019 10:35 pm

We were able to get this working by completely removing and reinstalling the VTL system with a reboot in between. We did not backup our configuration so we reconfigured from scratch, but there is a way to backup and restore the config.
I am now having a different issue on my third uploaded tape.

When I run the Upload script, the StarWinds service crashes completely and requires me to go to services and restart the upload, at which point it fails again.
Can I get some assistance on how to troubleshoot this crash?
I'm not seeing anything clear in the logs when this happens.
Regards,
-Scott
Boris (staff)
Staff
Posts: 805
Joined: Fri Jul 28, 2017 8:18 am

Thu Nov 28, 2019 10:52 am

Scott,

Is there a chance to get your logs for further investigation? You can upload them to your file sharing portal of choice and PM me the link to the download.
By the way, if your build is not the latest one, I would recommend to upgrade to the latest build, as there were some fixes added there.
apexit
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:01 pm

Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:19 pm

Hi Boris,
I am on the latest release already.
I'm PMing you the latest logs right now:
Boris (staff)
Staff
Posts: 805
Joined: Fri Jul 28, 2017 8:18 am

Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:52 pm

OK, waiting for the logs.
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