LAN-Free In A Shared Library Environment

I had to setup a LAN-Free client recently and ran into some trouble with the tape environment.  As you all know I use a shared library environment where multiple TSM servers share a single large library through a library controller TSM instance.  This works great since it allows for a shared scratch pool and TSM can be bounced faster since the DB is less than 2GB.  The problem arises when trying to setup a LAN-Free agent in this complex environment.  If you have ever read the directions for LAN-Free you’ll notice they can be quite confusing since they switch the client port to 1502 to accommodate the LAN-Free agent’s default of 1500.  Now understand 1500 makes sense because the LAN-Free agent is really just a stripped down TSM server. Since the TSM server uses 1500 by default so does the agent.  I decided to use port 1502 for the agent but forgot to change it in the dsmsta.opt file. This kept me from being able to connect to the agent from the client since it was looking at port 1502 and the agent was still using port 1500.

Another issue the directions don’t fully explain is where to point the LAN-Free agent when setting it up.  I will explain how here and hopefully make it easy to understand.

1. Setup the dsm.sys client file with the following lines

ENABLELANFREE           YES
LANFREECOMMMethod       TCPIP
LANFREETCPServeraddress <loopback, DNS name, or IP>
LANFREETCPPort          1502

2. Define the agent to the node’s TSM server and the library controller as a server

define server storagent serverpassword=passw0rd hladdress=<loopback, DNS name, or IP> lladdress=1502

Also don’t forget to register the node if not registered already.

register node <nodename> <password> domain=<domain name>

3.  On the TSM library controller instance path the drives seen by the node/LAN-Free agent machine.  I am assuming you have connected the client node to the SAN environment and zoned a number of drives to the node.  When seen in the OS you can define the path. Make sure you map the paths correctly. In AIX this can be done by running the lscfg –vp | more command and noting the drive serials and noting them to their corresponding drive in TSM.

DEFine PATH STORAGENT <Drive Name> SRCType=SERVER AUTODetect=YES DESTType=DRIVE LIBRary=<Library Name> DEVIce=/dev/rmtX ONLine=YES

Note:   For ACSLS libraries more configuration parameters need to be set. I am showing an IBM hardware example since I would never use anything else!

4. On the client node go to the storage agent’s folder and update the dsmsta.opt file with the following

     tcpport 1502

5. Now from that storage agent directory run the following command

dsmsta setstorageserver myname=storagent mypassword=passw0rd myhladdress=<loopback,DNS name, or IP> servername=<node’s tsm server IP or DNS name> lladdress=1500 <or port used by node’s tsm server>

Note:  Notice I am pointing the agent to the node’s TSM server. Even though it is a library client and does not control the drives, by defining the agent to both the client TSM server and the controller instance a handoff from the library client to the library controller will occur automatically.  If you do not define the LAN-Free agent to the library controller the agent will fail.

You should now be able to test the configuration by starting the dsmsta in the foreground and then from another telnet window start a TSM command line client and run a backup(if using Windows open a dsmc client). If setup correctly you’ll see the agent contact the controller for a drive and mount a tape and commence a LAN-Free backup.