Import VTLs in case of disastery

StarWind VTL, VTL Free, VTL Appliance

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mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Thu Jan 16, 2020 7:44 am

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to do a desaster recovery test. I've installed a brand new DC and a new DPM and joined it to the domain. I've installed starwind VTL on the DPM, recreated the target and device, attached my USB disk which contains my virtual tape backups. Then tried to insert the virtual tapes using the provided insert script. However I got an error: "Specified virtual tape doesn't exist."
It looks like VTL doesn't recognize the virtual tapes on new installations.

Is there anyone who managed to instert virtual tapes on new starwind VTL installation? What is the correct process to make my VTL backups available in case of disaster?
How can I import my VTLs?

Thank you in advance!

Ps: If I remove my VTL from the device I can insert them back without problem on the same starwind installation.
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2277
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Tue Jan 21, 2020 11:34 am

Sorry for such a delayed response. I have several questions:
1. Is the USB drive identified by your system?
2. Did you mount VTL on the backup host as outlined here https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resour ... d-storage/?
3. The guide provided above highlights how to set up StarWind VTL. To add an existing tape library, specify the path in the Add Device wizard.
4. To ensure backup availability in case of the disaster follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/3 ... s-survives and https://www.starwindsoftware.com/best-p ... /?pdf=1360.
Attachments
Here is the picture from the step 3.
Here is the picture from the step 3.
How to add Existing VTL.png (13.39 KiB) Viewed 9000 times
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Tue Jan 21, 2020 12:04 pm

Hi There,

Thank you for your answer!

I think it is important that I use the free edition where I have no wizard option. This is why I used the powershell method. But let me answer the questions:

1. Yes, the USB device is recognised by the OS and I can see the vtape files.
2. I mounted the VTLs through the PowerShell way but as I can see it is basically the same process but without GUI. I will write the exact scripts what I used to create the original VTLs and how I tried to mount it under the new server at the end of my post.
3. Please see the below scripts to see my way how I used PowerShell.
4. The goal here is recover our full environment from offsite backup so the "middle way" I think is not so important at this point.

And the script for create my VTL:

Code: Select all

$serverName ="SV1"
$filename = $serverName + "Offsite"
$numTapes = 60
$filepath = "F:\Offsite\" + $serverName
.\CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1 -fileName $filename -filePath $filepath -targetAlias $serverName -tapeSize 300000
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $numTapes; $i++){
.\AddVirtualTape.ps1 -deviceName $filename -tapeSize 300000 -maxDataFileSize 2048
}
Then I detached the tapes from the drive and moved our USB disk to the new server where I used the same script to create the new VTL. Well, actuall there was a difference.
On the new server I used a blank new USB disk to create the target and devices. It has got a drive letter "H" instead of "F". Then I detached the new VTLs from the drive and replaced the new temp USB disk with our existing offsite USB disk using in this case the same "H" as drive letter. I didn't care with this at the moment of creation as I didn't thought the drive letter is important.

And here is the script I used to mount the VTLs to the new server:

Code: Select all

.\InsertVirtualTape.ps1 -deviceName "SV1Offsite" -tapeBarcode "SWB1O00A" -slotAddress 1001
Of course I naviggated to the StarWind's powershell sample directory where the InsertVirtualTape.ps1 is located.

I also tried the following script:

Code: Select all

Import-Module StarWindX
$server = New-SWServer -host 127.0.0.1 -port 3261 -user root -password starwind
$server.Connect()
$server

$device = Get-Device $server -name SV1Offsite
$device.InsertTape("SWB1O00A", 1001)
In both cases I got the same error:
Specified virtual tape doesn't exist.
Thank you very much!
Boris (staff)
Staff
Posts: 805
Joined: Fri Jul 28, 2017 8:18 am

Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:06 am

Did you make sure the tape with the barcode SWB1O00A existed in the initial library?
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:50 pm

Yes, I did. It's on the Offline Shelf on the initial library.
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Wed Feb 05, 2020 7:36 am

Does this mean that nobody run into this problem or nobody has tried it until now? :)
Could someone confirm if he was able to import their virtual tapes on a brand new installation for recovery purposes? Thank you in advance!
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2277
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:52 am

Greetings mga,

We are working on this issue. There are no updates so we decided not to bother you here until resolution arrives. Sorry that resolution takes that long.
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:54 am

Hi there,

Thats not a problem. I just didn't know if I am the only one who has the problem (maybe because because of some missconfiguration on my side) or is it a reproducable problem.
Just take your time and let me know if I can assist in any way, try out something or give additional information.

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
MGA
Michael (staff)
Staff
Posts: 317
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:16 am

Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:34 pm

Hello mga,
The InsertVirtualTape.ps1 script allows inserting tapes that are located in the offline shelf. Assuming that you did a new installation, there will be no tapes in the offline shelf.
In order to restore the tape, you have to perform the following steps (there could be different ways, here is one of them):
- install StarWind VSAN in the new location;
- create a new virtual tape library on the location where you want to keep a restored library (in my case, F:\VTL) using the script CreateVirtualTapeLibrary.ps1;
- stop StarWind service;
- put VTL backup files (in my case, VTL.swdsk and folder VTL.swdsk.files) to the location where you want them to be located (in my case, it's F:\VTL, thus the files will be replaced);
- make sure that all paths in the restored vtl.swdsk file are pointing to the new location. In my case, <path>My Computer\C\VTL\VTL.swdsk.tapes\</path> (old location) was changed to <path>My Computer\F\VTL\VTL.swdsk.tapes\</path> ;
- make sure that path to VTL device in "C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWind.cfg" is correct and pointing to the VTL new location. In my case it's <device name="vtl" file="My Computer\F\VTL\vtl.swdsk"/>
- start StarWind service;
- tapes should be restored in the slots where they were and offline shelf, thus you can use InsertVirtualTape.ps1 script to insert them back from the offline shelf.
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:55 pm

Hello Michael,

Thank you very much for your update!

It sounds good except one thing:
"make sure that all paths in the restored vtl.swdsk file are pointing to the new location. In my case, <path>My Computer\C\VTL\VTL.swdsk.tapes\</path> (old location) was changed to <path>My Computer\F\VTL\VTL.swdsk.tapes\</path> ;"

In my .swdsk file there is no path at all so I cannot replace it. It contains only the barcodes of the newly created virtual tapes. If I simple replace the newly created barcodes to the recovered barcodes in the .swdsk file it just doesn't work. The virtual tape is just not recognized by the SW software.

I also tried to rename the original file name to the newly created one on the new installation and also tried to update the barcode label in the <barcode>.VTape file but it didn't worked.
Michael (staff)
Staff
Posts: 317
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:16 am

Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:09 am

Hello mga.
The path must be in the .swdsk file.
Could you please share it here (upload attachment)?
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:34 am

Hello Michael,

Sure! Here are two samples.
HVS2Offsite.swdsk -> it is the actual VTL where our production backup is running.
TMP.swdsk -> this is the temp one where I tried to attach an existing offsite backup.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: during the installation there was a wizard window where I could set some kind of "default location". I'm not sure if it is related but can that be the case? Can that default location the cause why there is no path in my swdsk file? Or am I totally missconfigured something or just missed some information?
Attachments
SWDSKFiles.zip
swdsk files
(5.14 KiB) Downloaded 298 times
Michael (staff)
Staff
Posts: 317
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:16 am

Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:39 pm

Hello mga.
I think the reason is in the names of the .swdsk files.
Could you please provide the build number you have installed and share StarWind configuration file (C:\Program Files\StarWind Software\StarWind\StarWind.cfg)?
Thanks!
mga
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 1:44 pm

Mon Mar 02, 2020 8:27 am

Hello Michael,

Please find attached the config files. Please be noted that I have replaced our server names. So in the test system the iSCSI target has now the 'TSTsrvNetbiosName' which in practice is our test server's netbios name and in the prod system you will find the 'prodFQDN' which in practice is our productive server's FQDN. I just realized that there is a difference here. Our prod DPM server is a domain member while our test server is not joined to the domain. I'm not sure if this can be a problem.

Our build number is 8.0.0.13279 on both servers.

What do you think about the file name's are the problem? Should I do a brend new test? I can fully reinstall the StarWind if you think it worth a try. Or I can re-create the VTLs from scratch. Just let me know.

Thank you for your help.

Update: now something strange happened. Until now we had two offsite disks. We have created VTLs on both disk from the same server and used them for offsite backup. We have switched the disks during the weekends dismounted/mounted the VTLs and the show could go on. So we had 2x60 VTL. 60 VTL were in the Tape library and the other 60 were on the Shelf.
This weekend we have switched the disks again. But now 60 of the VTLs just disappeared from the self. IT contains only one of the disk's VTLs. So I cannot mount the VTLs on the second disk because the VTLs on the disk are not registered anymore on the Shelf.
Attachments
StarWindConfgs.zip
(15.62 KiB) Downloaded 295 times
Michael (staff)
Staff
Posts: 317
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:16 am

Fri Mar 06, 2020 5:47 pm

mga,
could you please log a support case with the link to this thread?
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