Hpe

After installing the Data Protector patch bundle 8.13, you may ran into this error when trying to restore data from a HP StoreOnce appliance.

[Normal] From: RSM@dpcm.lab.local ""  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:10
	Restore session 2014/12/04-8 started.

[Normal] From: RMA@fileserver.lab.local "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:12
	STARTING Media Agent "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"

[Normal] From: RMA@fileserver.lab.local "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:13
	Loading medium from slot 192.168.200.101Store_1257902bf_54796efc_04f4_005c to device D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]

[Major] From: RMA@fileserver.lab.local "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:15
[90:52]  	192.168.200.101Store_1257902bf_54796efc_04f4_005c
	Cannot read from device (JSONizer error: Device read failure)

[Normal] From: RMA@fileserver.lab.local "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:15
	Unloading medium to slot \\192.168.200.101\Store_1\257902bf_54796efc_04f4_005c from device D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]

[Normal] From: RMA@fileserver.lab.local "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:15
	ABORTED Media Agent "D2D_GW1 [GW 6408:0:7255964966039732580]"

[Normal] From: RSM@dpcm.lab.local ""  Time: 04.12.2014 09:13:15

	Restore Statistics:
          
		Session Queuing Time (hours)         0,00        
		------------------------------------------- 
		Completed Disk Agents ........          0          
		Failed Disk Agents ...........          1          
		Aborted Disk Agents ..........          0          
		------------------------------------------- 
		Disk Agents Total  ...........          1          
		===========================================      
		Completed Media Agents .......          0          
		Failed Media Agents ..........          0          
		Aborted Media Agents .........          1          
		------------------------------------------- 
		Media Agents Total  ..........          1          
		===========================================      
		Mbytes Total .................       0 MB        
		Used Media Total .............          1          
		Disk Agent Errors Total ......          0

This problem is known and it is described in QCCR2A56465. A fix is available (new BMA, CMA, MMA and RMA binaries). Simply open a service request and ask for the fix. Make sure that you add a copy of the session messages or a screenshot to the service request.

This applies to upgrades from Data Protector 6.x and 7.x to 8.x and 9.x.

It seems that today is my debugging day… Yesterday I performed a Data Protector update from 7.03 to 8.13. During this update, the Data Protector IDB is migrated to another database format. Last night the backups went smoothly, but today I noticed that two old Detail Catalog Binary File (DCBF) directories were still referenced in the HP Data Protector IDB.

HP has brushed up the StoreServ 7000 series and updated the StoreServ 7200 and 7400 models. HP also added a new model to the 7000 series: The StoreServ 7440c.

New 3PAR StoreServ models:

Model	3PAR StoreServ 7200c	3PAR StoreServ 7400c	3PAR StoreServ 7440c
Nodes	2	2 or 4	2 or 4
CPUs	2x 6-Core 1,8 GHz	2x or 4x 6-Core 1,8 GHz	2x or 4x 8-Core 2,3 GHz
Gen4 ASICs	2	2 or 4	2 or 4
On-Node Cache	40 GB	48 - 96 GB	96 - 192 GB
Max Drives	8 - 240 (max 120 SSDs)	8 – 576 (max 240 SSDs)	8 - 960 (max 240 SSDs)
Max Enclosures	0 - 9	0 - 22	0 - 38

Old 3PAR StoreServ models

While preparing for a VMware vSphere 5.5 update at a customer of mine, I stumbled over VMware KB2085618 (ESXi host cannot initiate vMotion or enable services and reports the error: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size.Cannot expand.). I checked the HP AMS version in the latest HP custom ESXi image and found out, that version hp-ams-esx-550.10.0.0-18.1198610 is included (source). Unfortunately the bug is not fixed in 10.0.0, but it’s fixed in 10.0.1 (source).

On October 28 2014 HP has published HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1 MU1, the first maintenance update for HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1. Beside some fixes, HP enabled in-line deduplication (Thin Deduplication) on all the systems with 3PAR GEN4 ASIC (StoreServ 7000 and 10000). Thin Deduplication does not require any license! It’s included in the base license and every customer can use it without spending money for it.

Thin Deduplication

In-line deduplication is awesome, congrats to HP for making this possible. Deduplication on primary storage is nothing new, but the way how HP 3PAR doing it, is really cool. It’s not a post-process, like NetApps deduplication technology. With HP 3PAR, deduplication happens when data enters the array. I took this figure from a HP whitepaper. It shows in a simple way what enables HP 3PAR to do in-line deduplication: The 3PAR GEN4 ASIC (Who has criticised 3PAR for using custom ASICs…?). Thin Deduplication is in line with the other 3PAR thin technologies.

Some days ago I wrote two blog posts (part I and part II) about VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) with HP 3PAR Peer Persistence. Because I wrote about it in the first of the two blog posts, allow me to take a short description, what Peer Persistence is and what it does, from that blog post:

The first part of this (short) blog series covered the basics of VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) with HP 3PAR Peer Persistence. This, the second, part will cover the basic tasks to configure Peer Persistence. Please note that this blog post relies on the features and supported configurations of 3PAR OS 3.1.3! This is essential to know, because 3.1.3 got some important enhancements in respect of 3PAR Remote Copy.

Fibre-Channel zoning

On of the very first tasks is to create zones with between the Remote Copy Fibre Channel (RCFC) ports. I used two ports from a quad-port FC Adapter for Remote Copy. This matrix shows the zone members in each Fibre Channel fabric. 3PAR OS 3.1.3 supports up to four RCFC ports per node. Earlier versions of 3PAR OS only support one RCFC port per node.

Sometimes the easy jobs seems to be the hardest. Especially if you have to deal with high-quality software… As part of a project I had to install and configure a HP StoreOnce 4500 appliance in combination with HP Data Protector 8.12 and a StoreEver MSL2024 G3 tape-library. No big deal - until I hit the part, when I had to install HP StoreOnce Enterprise Manager v1.3 (SEM) on the new backup server. The installation failed with this error:

The title of this blog post mentions two terms that have to be explained. First, a VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster (or VMware vMSC) is a configuration of a VMware vSphere cluster, that is based on a a stretched storage cluster. Secondly, HP 3PAR Peer Persistence adds functionalities to HP 3PAR Remote Copy software and HP 3PAR OS, that two 3PAR storage systems form a nearly continuous storage system. HP 3PAR Peer Persistence allows you, to create a VMware vMSC configuration and to achieve a new quality of availability and reliability.

The recovery of an Exchange mailbox using a recovery database is usually no big deal. Simply restore the database, create a recovery database and recover the mailbox or items from the mailbox. Sometimes you have the luck that the customer has licensed the Data Protector Exchange 2010 Granular Recovery for Exchange (GRE). This was unfortunately not true in my case. Okay, so let’s do it the old way. The needed tape was available in the library and luckily it was a full backup. So I quickly added a disk to the VM and started the recovery of the database to a temporary location. At this point, the disaster took its course…