Introduction

The NearStore® VTL 5.2.3 Release Notes contain links to the latest information and bug fixes for the NetApp NearStore VTL 5.2.3 release. These Release Notes are designed to be used online.

This section contains information about the following topics:

• New and changed features
• Who should upgrade
• Changes to Installation Procedures
• Links to product documentation

New and Changed Features

NearStore VTL 5.2.3 is a GA release in the NearStore VTL release family and installation is mandatory. This release includes all of the bug fixes and improvements in the VTL 5.2.2 release, and includes a bug fix for a problem sometimes seen during disk and disk shelf firmware upgrades (See Bug ID 256293 in Bugs Online for more information). Because disk and disk shelf firmware upgrades might be required to provide fixes for specific problems, VTL 5.2.3 a mandatory release.

Changes in this release (also included in VTL 5.2.2), include changes or extension to some features and important fixes intended to improve system reliability and data availability by doing the following:

• Prevent possible virtual tape data availability problems after a write error followed by a reboot
• Prevent a VTL from freezing when running into an unexpected condition
• Support Decru® DataFort® security appliance generation of encrypted physical tapes

  Decru DataFort security appliance support requires the following:

  • Running Decru DataFort patch release 2.2 P4 with the compression option enabled
  • Enabling the VTL by setting Advanced > Options Use NetApp Decru DataFort

  Before importing non-encrypted tapes to the VTL, set Advanced > Options Disable Smart Cloning

  You can use a new advanced option to disable smart cloning. To use this new option from the GUI, do the following: navigate to Configuration Options > Advanced > Options, and select Disable Smart Cloning.

• Support new disk and disk shelf firmware

This upgrade is mandatory for all VTL appliances.

Important bug fixes include the following:

• Action 3400 after Disk Shelf Firmware Upgrade or Disk Drive Firmware Upgrade (Bug ID 256293)
• VTL crashes when over allocation is enabled and running out of disk space (Bug ID 240608)
• System stops when running disk compression to 6+1 RAID group (Bug ID 236504)
• I/O errors on compact flash card result in VTL freeze (Bug ID 243395)
• Prevent one physical drive failure from stopping web access (Bug ID 243101)
• Clicking on a stale browser page causes VTL to crash (Bug ID 242329)
• VTL crashes when doing ACSLS inventory (Bug ID 240314)
• CLI command "acs list_batch_cap", goes into infinite loop (Bug ID 240311)
• Frequent full inventory update because of missed ACSLS notifications (Bug ID 242781)
• ACSLS physical tape drive in RECOVERY state causes VTL ACSLS component to fail (Bug ID 245167)
• Extremely slow backup performance when 180 virtual drives are configured (Bug ID 245165)
• Action for HTTP autosupport cannot be removed (Bug ID 234889)
• Incorrect drive mapping after configuring a Quantum PX506 series physical library (Bug ID 242821)
• Starting import through the CLI when the changer is busy causes VTL crash (Bug ID 247547)
• License lost after disaster recovery and upload of saved configuration (Bug ID 230904)
• CLI allows creating an import request for an already imported tape (Bug ID 240748)
• After upgrading from 5.0 to 5.2 and loading the default configuration, the appliance looses the installed VTL 700 license key (Bug ID 241748)
• VTL forwards backend disk IO errors to the frontend; need error masking (Bug ID 222282)
• The VTL CLI command "vdrive show" serial number field is wrong (Bug ID 240103)
• VTL freezes during reboot (Bug ID 201823)

See Bugs Online for more information.

New and changed features include the following:

• Reduction in serial console boot time messages. All routine messages after the message "All lower priority and informational console messages are being shut down," are now suppressed. Note that it can take several minutes after this time before the boot is complete. You can run the CLI command dmesg show to check the boot status.
• New support interface to access VTL diagnostics, which is accessible even if the VTL GUI freezes.
• Support tool to dump the stack of running threads in case of a VTL freeze.
• After upgrading, a reminder to enable Autosupport, if not already enabled (an Action Required notification).

  To resolve the Action Required notification either enable Autosupport, or specify that the appliance should not use Autosupport. NetApp recommends enabling Autosupport.

• Support for AIT drives with Netvault.
• Support for IBM adtt driver for IBM LTO tape drive on HPUX.
• Support for additional virtual drive templates for STK T10000, IBM 3592, and Quantum DLT-S4 drives.
• Improved support for TSM backup applications.
• Changes to simplify space management for new installations, including the following:
  • Change to the over-allocation default setting. Over-allocation is now disabled by default.
  • Addition of a new virtual drive type designed to optimize disk space when no physical library is connected to the VTL. The type has a raw capacity of 50 GB, allocated capacity of 500 GB and smart sizing set to none. Do not use this type for direct tape creation (DTC).
  • Changes to all existing virtual drive types. The revisions set raw capacity equal to allocated capacity. Typically this improves disk utilization and permits more effective use of smart sizing. In some cases, smart sizing may underestimate the amount of space saved. In those cases, you can turn on over-allocation to improve disk utilization. Additionally, if you are not using disk compression, you might want to turn on over-allocation.

  Note that these changes do not affect existing installations.

• Inclusion of disk shelf firmware version 34.
• Support for firmware upgrades to additional drives.

To request more information about an individual bug and to explore other bug-related tools, see Bugs Online.

Who should upgrade

The NetApp NearStore VTL 5.2.3 release supports all NetApp NearStore VTL appliances and is mandatory for all VTL appliances to improve system reliability and data availability.

You can directly upgrade the following releases to the VTL 5.2.3 release:

• VTL 4.1.2 [#6454]
• VTL 5.0 [#6996]
• VTL 5.1.1 [#7990]
• VTL 5.2 [#8466]
• VTL 5.2.1 [#8635]
• VTL 5.2.2 [#9223]

If you have an appliance running VTL 4.1 [#5821], or VTL 4.1.1 [#6233], first upgrade it to VTL 4.1.2 [#6454] before upgrading to VTL 5.2.3.

If you have an appliance running VTL 5.1 [#7871], first upgrade it to VTL 5.1.1 [#7990] before upgrading to VTL 5.2.3.

If you are running any other release, for example, an earlier release, a P release, or a D release, contact NetApp technical support before upgrading.

Changes to Installation Procedures

The NetApp NearStore VTL 5.2.3 release uses installation procedures for both the VTL OS, and for disk shelf firmware, that include steps in addition to the steps documented in the NetApp NearStore VTL System Administration Guide. Although a disk firmware upgrade is not required as part of VTL 5.2.3, the disk firmware installation procedure also now includes some additional steps. The revised procedures are:

• Changes to the VTL OS upgrade procedure
• Changes to the VTL disk shelf firmware upgrade procedure
• Changes to the VTL disk firmware upgrade procedure

Changes to the VTL OS upgrade procedure

To upgrade the OS on a VTL appliance, do the following:

1. Review Who should upgrade.
   
2. Make sure no backup, restore, clone, export, or import operation is in progress.
   
3. Unload all virtual tapes from the virtual library drives if any. Use your backup application to do this, if possible. Alternately go to the Daily Tasks > Virtual Library task in the VTL GUI. Drag and drop all virtual tapes from drives to empty slots; if you do this, you need to update your backup application inventory afterward.
   
4. Save your VTL configuration to a file (Go to Miscellaneous > Configuration Management > Save Configuration in the VTL GUI).
   
5. Follow the procedure "Updating the NearStore VTL Software Image", in the NearStore VTL System Administration Guide.
   

Changes to the VTL disk shelf firmware upgrade procedure

Note: Although an action to upgrade the disk shelf firmware is generated as soon VTL 5.2.3 is installed, the disk shelf firmware upgrade procedure does not need to be performed immediately, and can be scheduled for a maintenance window.

Upgrading disk shelf firmware takes approximately 10 minutes per shelf. Shelves are upgraded sequentially. For example, on a VTL with four shelves, the process can take up to 40 minutes.

To upgrade VTL disk shelf firmware, do the following:

Caution: Do not interrupt the power to the VTL during the upgrade process.

Caution: Do not perform any other tasks on the VTL while the upgrade is in progress, either from a separate admin session, or using the CLI. The VTL should be idle during the upgrade process.

1. Make sure the VTL is idle. There should be no backups, exports, or clones in progress. Shut down the backup application so that it does not initiate communication with the VTL. Do not use the console, either to initiate the upgrade, or for any other reason.
2. Make a backup copy of the VTL configuration: from the GUI, select the Miscellaneous > Configuration Management tab, and then select Save Configuration.
3. Unload all virtual tapes from drives.
4. Wait 10 minutes to allow all activity to complete.
5. From the VTL GUI, click on the Action Resolve link to go to the Shelf Firmware Upgrade page, or navigate to the same page by selecting Support Tools under Configuration Tasks and choosing the Shelf Firmware Upgrade tab.
6. In the list of disk shelves, select the shelves to upgrade, or select the top checkbox to select all shelves.
7. Click Apply. The screen is replaced with the message, "A Shelf firmware download session is currently in progress."

   The screen continues to refresh until the upgrades are complete. When the upgrades are complete, the GUI displays the Shelf Firmware Upgrade page. The Controller Version field for the upgraded shelves lists the new firmware version number.

8. When the firmware upgrades are complete, if after 10 minutes not all of the RAID groups are back to normal, perform these steps:
   1. Wait ten minutes.
   2. Power off the VTL head.
   3. Power off the disk shelves.
   4. Wait for one minute.
   5. Power up the disk shelves.
   6. Wait for two minutes.
   7. Power up the VTL head.

   Note: It is possible that actions will be generated for Raid Group errors. Ignore these actions as they are due to the shelf update process itself.

Changes to the VTL disk firmware upgrade procedure

Upgrading disk firmware takes approximately four minutes per disk. Disks are upgraded sequentially.

Note: Use this procedure for future disk firmware upgrades. No updated disk firmware is included with VTL 5.2.3.

To upgrade VTL disk firmware, do the following:

Caution: Do not interrupt the power to the VTL during the upgrade process.

Caution: Do not perform any other tasks on the VTL while the upgrade is in progress, either from a separate admin session, or using the CLI. The VTL should be idle during the upgrade process.

1. Make sure the VTL is idle. There should be no backups, exports, or clones in progress. Shut down the backup application so that it does not initiate communication with the VTL. Do not use the console, either to initiate the upgrade, or for any other reason.
2. Make a backup copy of the VTL configuration: from the GUI, select the Miscellaneous > Configuration Management tab, and then select Save Configuration.
3. Unload all virtual tapes from drives.
4. Wait 10 minutes to allow all activity to complete.
5. Follow the procedure "Starting a Disk Firmware Upgrade", in the NearStore VTL System Administration Guide.
6. When the firmware upgrades are complete, if after 10 minutes, not all of the RAID groups are back to normal, perform these steps:
   1. Wait 10 minutes.
   2. Power off the VTL head.
   3. Power off the disk shelves.
   4. Wait for one minute.
   5. Power up the disk shelves.
   6. Wait for two minutes.
   7. Power up the VTL head.

   Note: It is possible that actions will be generated for Raid Group errors. Ignore these actions as they are due to the disk update process itself.

Links to Product Documentation

The following table describes documents on the NetApp NOW Web site with the most current information about host and VTL system requirements, supported configurations, and best practices, as well as specific procedures that install and manage your storage environment.