Tape Changer Broken by ESXi 4

[mikelundy]

VMWare....WTF did you do! You broke it! I'm in the same boat as a few others.

Dell

PowerEdge R805 & PowerVault TL2000/TL4000 LTO drive connected to SAS 5/E Controller (Nothing else on that controller).

It was working

fine till I upgraded to vSphere 4! It see's both Library and Tape, but

it doesn't respond to any commands from Symantec Backup Exec. Tried

changing the scsi ID, rebooting multiple times, reloading the Symantec

drivers, updating firmware. No dice. I've been over a week without backups now! I'm so

fired!:0

[TimPhillips]

Hmmm. O.K. even if VmWare is horably guilty, and you knew that vSphere can brake, why you haven`t used some VTL? As I know Starwind has a special VTL verion of their iSCSI target.

[AndreTheGiant]

On ESX 4.0 the same configuration (SAS 5/E + TL2000 + BE) works.

But I've got the same problem after the upgrade.

I've solved in this way:

• remove the SCSI devices from the VM

• power-off all

• power-on first the TL2000

• power-on the ESX

• add again the SCSI devices (seem that name can change), on a new virtual SCSI controller

• power on the VM

• use the BE utility to re-add the library and tape

Andre

[mikelundy]

Thanks. We already have SAN based snapshots for short term backups, but we've got tapes for long term archival backup. If I could trade in the tapes for a big cheap raid, I would in a heartbeat. But ya know...budget. Besides...who's to say vSphere can brake but VTL can't?

[mikelundy]

Thanks. Good to hear it`s possible. I`ve tried this a few times to no avail, but I`m going to try it on another VM this morning just to make sure it`s not a driver issue.

[TimPhillips]

Never heard about it And in case of what Starwind support reacts very fast.

[AndreTheGiant]

For the tape driver use Veritas driver and not the Windows one.

Andre

[ConstantinV]

Hello, mikelundy! I can say that using of our Starwind VTL has its own advantages: using Starwind VTL allows you not only connect VTL directly to tape device, but it laso can replase slow tape devices, what will significantly increase speed of backup recovery, either reliability. If you like you always can download 30-days demo version of our software on our Starwind VTL page.

Starwind Software Evangelist

Konstantin Videnski

[mikelundy]

Yea...well my Falconstor CDP could kick your Srarwinds VTL`s ass!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! IN ONE CORNER FALCONSTOR...IN THE OTHER STARWINDS.......ONLY ONE SHAL EMERGE VICTORIOUS!!! :smileydevil:

[ConstantinV]

It`s always pleasant to take part in well-reasonable talk.

I just saw Falcon SDP feature set. For now I didn`t test it,but I can say that our company has released VTL version as offer aimed only for work with tapes, ifyou need more general set of functions you can try Starwind Enterprise Server, which has all functions, avaible for now in our software, except VTL emu....

Regards

Constantin Videnski,

Starwind Software Evangelist

[mikelundy]

:smileyangry:

[mikelundy]

The solution ended up being: Downgrade back to ESXi 3.5. Nothing I tried worked, even the above suggestions. I'll give it a couple months to see if there's a patch released, or another fix is seen on the forums, and update thread to let other's know. Thanks everyone for their suggestions!

[sossie7]

I have a similar problem - see my post:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/226099?tstart=90

I have put it down to the new VMDirectPath in ESX4.0 - this requires a Intel 5500-series "Nehalem-EP" processor.

See this VMware Tech note: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsp_4_vmdirectpath_host.pdf

It seems to me in my testing that the older "scsi passthrough" has been broken by this newer VMDirectPath.

[mikelundy]

Did disabling VMDirectPath work for you?

[sossie7]

It appears to be disabled anyway, I have a message (unde host configuration tab, hardware/advanced) that the host des not support passthrough configuration. You would need an Intel 5500 cpu for this to be supported, I have Intel 5400.

[mikelundy]

Great....I've got an AMD Opteron in that server. LoL.

[SebataIT]

Hi Mikelundy

I have the same problem with my tape drive did you find a solution?

Vmware Esxi 4.1 - Tape Backup not working

Hi Everyone

I  am trying to make a Tape data backup using Acronis but it does not want  to backup. I can backup to a folder using Acronis. I think it is a  problem with Vmware and the tape drive. Please can someone help.

Current Server Specs

HP Server ML330 G6

HP Smart Array P212 Controller

HP Smart Array P410 Controller

HP StorageWorks Ultrium 920 SAS Internal Tape Drive

Vmware Esxi 4.1

Windows 2008 Enterprise R2

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition

Regards

~ # esxcli nmp satp listrules -s VMW_SATP_LOCAL
Name            Device  Vendor  Model  Driver  Transport  Options  Claim Options  Default PSP  PSP Options  Description
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                 usb                                                          USB Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                 ide                                                          IDE Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                 block                                                        RAID Block Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                  parallel                                                     Parallel  SCSI Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                  sas                                                          Serial  Attached SCSI Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                 sata                                                         Serial ATA Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                                 unknown                                                      Unknown Devices
VMW_SATP_LOCAL                          mptspi                                                                Specific rule for HP Smart Array Card
~ #
~ # esxcfg-scsidevs -a
vmhba0   ata_piix          link-n/a  sata.vmhba0                              (0:0:31.2) Intel Corporation ICH10 4 port SATA IDE Controller
vmhba1   ata_piix          link-n/a  sata.vmhba1                              (0:0:31.5) Intel Corporation ICH10 2 port SATA IDE Controller
vmhba2  hpsa              link-n/a  sas.500143801121cc10                    (0:4:0.0) Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array P212
vmhba3  hpsa              link-n/a  sas.5001438011235250                    (0:10:0.0) Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array P410
vmhba32  ata_piix          link-n/a  sata.vmhba32                             (0:0:31.2) Intel Corporation ICH10 4 port SATA IDE Controller
vmhba33  ata_piix          link-n/a  sata.vmhba33                             (0:0:31.5) Intel Corporation ICH10 2 port SATA IDE Controller
~ #

~ # esxcli nmp device list
mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
    Device Display Name: Local hp CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)
    Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL
    Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device configuration.
    Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED
    Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba33:C0:T0:L0;current=vmhba33:C0:T0:L0}
    Working Paths: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

naa.600508b1001c65e9a0489c26ec50c96b
    Device Display Name: HP Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.600508b1001c65e9a0489c26ec50c96b)
    Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL
    Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device configuration.
    Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED
    Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba3:C0:T0:L1;current=vmhba3:C0:T0:L1}
    Working Paths: vmhba3:C0:T0:L1

naa.600508b1001c5eca71abc2c5b0cea402
    Device Display Name: HP Serial Attached SCSI Disk (naa.600508b1001c5eca71abc2c5b0cea402)
    Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL
    Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device configuration.
    Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED
    Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba3:C0:T0:L0;current=vmhba3:C0:T0:L0}
    Working Paths: vmhba3:C0:T0:L0

naa.500110a00140111a
    Device Display Name: HP Serial Attached SCSI Tape (naa.500110a00140111a)
    Storage Array Type: VMW_SATP_LOCAL
    Storage Array Type Device Config: SATP VMW_SATP_LOCAL does not support device configuration.
    Path Selection Policy: VMW_PSP_FIXED
    Path Selection Policy Device Config: {preferred=vmhba2:C0:T0:L0;current=vmhba2:C0:T0:L0}
    Working Paths: vmhba2:C0:T0:L0

~ #

[SebataIT]

Backup Exec work with tape drive, Acronis does not work with Tape drive on Vmware.