Decommissioning 'expired' Media Server in SSO environment.

This issue has been solved. See solution.
Andy Welburn's picture

Many moons ago, we had an evaluation licence on our set up to allow us to test out an additional media server (for testing VM backups, but that's another story).

At the time we were running 6.5.1 (Solaris Master/Media) plus library with 4 LTO3 tape drives of which two were licenced for SSO (shared with one of our two NetApp filers for NDMP).

The evaluation licence on this media server expired long, long ago (in a galaxy ...) so services have been deprecated on this host such that it is essentially now just a client. This has not been a problem as 6.5.1 (and 6.5.1 Admin Console) never really reported any issues with paths being down (don't forget, I'm using SSO), altho' I did expect to have issues when I finally came to do this ;)

I have just upgraded to 6.5.4 (including Admin Console as we had some weird issues running 6.5.1 Admin Console with Master at 6.5.4?) & now all drives are showing as partially up/down (plus I am also getting error 47's on image clean-up - failed connecting to another machine - which may also be related to this 'media server').

Therefore, to prevent getting into a 'cry-wolf' situation where valid errors are ignored as drives always show in a partial state etc, I want to remove reference to this 'media server'. But that's where I hit the snag:

Following steps in TechNote DOCUMENTATION: What is the process for decommissioning a NetBackup 6.5 media server?
1. No media assigned to this host.
2. Not applicable.
3. Not applicable.
4. Not applicable.
5. Cannot remove tape drives - SSO - have to remove paths & to do that I have to recycle the services on the media server & these aren't runnning as the evaluation licence has expired!
    Also have a robot associated with this media server (shared?).
    Not intending to remove storage units etc until I can remove the shared devices.
6. Not applicable - removed.
7 Not intending to do this until I can remove the shared devices.
8. Not yet!!
9. Not applicable.

Is there a way I can do this without getting another evaluation licence?
Can nbemmcmd be used to remove SSO tape drives etc or another command that will 'over-ride' the requirement to stop & start services on the media server to be decommissioned?

Additional info/output:
# nbemmcmd -listhosts
NBEMMCMD, Version:6.5.4
The following hosts were found:
server master
master master
ndmp filer1
ndmp filer2
virtual_machine someVMbox
virtual_machine someVMbox
media defunctmedia (this is the one I want rid of!)
Command completed successfully.

# vmglob -listall -b
device
type device name serial number host name
------------------------------------------------------------------------
robot ROBOT1  2B73900001 defunctmedia
drive Drive_1    HU10726KNY defunctmedia
drive Drive_2    HU107230PG defunctmedia
driveDrive_3    HU107250K7 defunctmedia
driveDrive_4    HU107230LK defunctmedia
robot ROBOT1  2B73900001 master
drive Drive_1    HU10726KNY master
drive Drive_2    HU107230PG master
drive Drive_3    HU107250K7 master
drive Drive_4    HU107230LK master

Gerald Wanjohi Gitau's picture

I think the easiest solution

I think the easiest solution will be to "borrow, beg or steal" a media license key from the functional one and get the services up. After this you can follow the normal decomissioning procedure.

Andy Welburn's picture

Thanks Gerald.

That's what I was thinking - got my boss now looking for another eval licence for additional Media Sever (only need it for 30minutes or so!!) so we'll see what happens :D

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."

Prashant K's picture

Alternate solution

Hi Andy,

I think you can run the nbemmcmd -deletealldevices -machinename <media servername> -machinetype <media> which would delete all the devices on that server and then only the storageunits would be left which can be removed manually.

Once done run the nbemmcmd -listhosts again and see if the server is still listed if YES, then run the command nbemmcmd -deletehost -machinename <media servername> -machinetype <media> this would delete the entry for that server from the emm database.

Then you can remove the media server software and install only the client software.

Rgds,
Prashant K

Prashant K's picture

Alternate solution

Solution

Hi Andy,

I think you can run the nbemmcmd -deletealldevices -machinename <media servername> -machinetype <media> which would delete all the devices on that server and then only the storageunits would be left which can be removed manually.

Once done run the nbemmcmd -listhosts again and see if the server is still listed if YES, then run the command nbemmcmd -deletehost -machinename <media servername> -machinetype <media> this would delete the entry for that server from the emm database.

Also make sure under any client or on the master server properties this servername is not listed.

Then you can remove the media server software and install only the client software.

Rgds,
Prashant K

Andy Welburn's picture

Cheers Prashant

That was just the ticket.

I did look at this command but was not confident that it would do what I wanted, especially with SSO being involved, afterall it's not every day you delete a media server (I hope). Will now go thru' all my clients & check for reference to this defunct media server.

Thanks again, & thanks again Gerald for your input.

Regards Andy

"It's not too late to panic ..."