Bridging fc to scsi for NetApp filer backups

I have a couple of Crossroads 10k storage routers that are giving me
nothing but grief. 98% of all issues with the setup are due to these.
The setup is:

netapp -- brocade switch -- crossroads -- tape drives

Idea is simple but implementation has been murder. I'm curious if
anyone is using these bridges or has a similar setup and if it's
working for you. I have a total of 28 filers but only 15 are fiber
attached, rest are 3-way backup. 2 10k bridges with 2x2gb modules and
4 scsi modules in back.

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.

Thanks.

~JK

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene

On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:06:09 +0100, "Rene Koehnen-Wiesemes"
wrote:

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene


Well, they're all over the board but they always start with
performance dropping to it's knees. The bridge has very little in the
way of online diags so inevitably the solution is reboot the bridge.
Everything from buffer overflows to mis-presenting scsi id's.

I'm looking more for information from people who already have this
sort of setup and what they think of it. Not necessarily a bridge but
filers using fiber to backup.
Ideally I'd go stright to fiber drives but SDLT has no native fiber
yet.

~F

We have a filer (R150) that uses fiber to connect to an L700 via a crossroad
bridge (1 Gig 1/f).
No problems so far, but we don't have a fiber switch in between,
just R150- crossroad.- tape drives
Performance averages 18995 KB/s
-G

"Faeandar" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:06:09 +0100, "Rene Koehnen-Wiesemes"
wrote:

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene


Well, they're all over the board but they always start with
performance dropping to it's knees. The bridge has very little in the
way of online diags so inevitably the solution is reboot the bridge.
Everything from buffer overflows to mis-presenting scsi id's.

I'm looking more for information from people who already have this
sort of setup and what they think of it. Not necessarily a bridge but
filers using fiber to backup.
Ideally I'd go stright to fiber drives but SDLT has no native fiber
yet.

~F

Is that a per stream rate? How many streams? In all but the first
case the switch has bnever been part of the problem. We do dwdm for
some of the filers hence the fc switches. Also, all the local filers
won't fit directly onto the bridge.

Can you post the firmware version you're using? Are you chaining any
drives off the bus? Question bombardment I know, but it's nice to
hear someone is able to use it and I'd like to be able to duplicate
that....

Thanks.

~F

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 02:13:50 GMT, "Net Worker"
wrote:

We have a filer (R150) that uses fiber to connect to an L700 via a crossroad
bridge (1 Gig 1/f).
No problems so far, but we don't have a fiber switch in between,
just R150- crossroad.- tape drives
Performance averages 18995 KB/s
-G

"Faeandar" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:06:09 +0100, "Rene Koehnen-Wiesemes"
wrote:

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene


Well, they're all over the board but they always start with
performance dropping to it's knees. The bridge has very little in the
way of online diags so inevitably the solution is reboot the bridge.
Everything from buffer overflows to mis-presenting scsi id's.

I'm looking more for information from people who already have this
sort of setup and what they think of it. Not necessarily a bridge but
filers using fiber to backup.
Ideally I'd go stright to fiber drives but SDLT has no native fiber
yet.

~F

"Faeandar" wrote in message
...
Is that a per stream rate? How many streams?

Yes its per stream. Is that good or can it be tweaked further?
We use Netbackup NDMP. not sure if increasing the stream would improve
performance, I think 18995 KB/s is near the rated capacity of an LTO drive,
(15MB/second native, 30MB/second compressed)?

In all but the first
case the switch has bnever been part of the problem. We do dwdm for
some of the filers hence the fc switches. Also, all the local filers
won't fit directly onto the bridge.
We don't backup the filers directly, all of them snapvault to the R150 and
we then backup the R150 to tapes monthly.


Can you post the firmware version you're using?
Firmware of FC bridge model: StorageTek SN3250 Router Version: 3.06 2009j
Are you chaining any
drives off the bus?
No. R150 has a FC adaptor connected to one crossroad bridge. which has 2
LTO SCSI LVD drives attached to it in a L700. Robot controlled by the
netbackup master server running on solaris.

Question bombardment I know, but it's nice to
hear someone is able to use it and I'd like to be able to duplicate
that....

Thanks.

~F

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 02:13:50 GMT, "Net Worker"
wrote:

We have a filer (R150) that uses fiber to connect to an L700 via a
crossroad
bridge (1 Gig 1/f).
No problems so far, but we don't have a fiber switch in between,
just R150- crossroad.- tape drives
Performance averages 18995 KB/s
-G

"Faeandar" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:06:09 +0100, "Rene Koehnen-Wiesemes"
wrote:

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes
into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene


Well, they're all over the board but they always start with
performance dropping to it's knees. The bridge has very little in the
way of online diags so inevitably the solution is reboot the bridge.
Everything from buffer overflows to mis-presenting scsi id's.

I'm looking more for information from people who already have this
sort of setup and what they think of it. Not necessarily a bridge but
filers using fiber to backup.
Ideally I'd go stright to fiber drives but SDLT has no native fiber
yet.

~F

Yes its per stream. Is that good or can it be tweaked further?
We use Netbackup NDMP. not sure if increasing the stream would improve
performance, I think 18995 KB/s is near the rated capacity of an LTO drive,
(15MB/second native, 30MB/second compressed)?

you're probably near peak performance then, after 15mb/sec it is data
dependent.



Can you post the firmware version you're using?
Firmware of FC bridge model: StorageTek SN3250 Router Version: 3.06 2009j

This explains part of it. We have 2 10k Crossroads and 1 SN3250
(rebadged Xroads). The 3250 ha been much less problematic, it's the
10k's that are killing me. I believe it has to do with the load but
still haven't been able to confirm that.

Thanks for the info though, and glad to hear your setup is working
well.

~F

Are you chaining any
drives off the bus?
No. R150 has a FC adaptor connected to one crossroad bridge. which has 2
LTO SCSI LVD drives attached to it in a L700. Robot controlled by the
netbackup master server running on solaris.

Question bombardment I know, but it's nice to
hear someone is able to use it and I'd like to be able to duplicate
that....

Thanks.

~F

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 02:13:50 GMT, "Net Worker"
wrote:

We have a filer (R150) that uses fiber to connect to an L700 via a
crossroad
bridge (1 Gig 1/f).
No problems so far, but we don't have a fiber switch in between,
just R150- crossroad.- tape drives
Performance averages 18995 KB/s
-G

"Faeandar" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 21:06:09 +0100, "Rene Koehnen-Wiesemes"
wrote:

Performance blows, every weekend when we run fulls something goes
into
the weeds, and everytime (but once) it's been the bridge.


Please provide us with more details about the problems you have.

Rene


Well, they're all over the board but they always start with
performance dropping to it's knees. The bridge has very little in the
way of online diags so inevitably the solution is reboot the bridge.
Everything from buffer overflows to mis-presenting scsi id's.

I'm looking more for information from people who already have this
sort of setup and what they think of it. Not necessarily a bridge but
filers using fiber to backup.
Ideally I'd go stright to fiber drives but SDLT has no native fiber
yet.

~F