How do I install a new external/usb archive drive?

[Belinda Frick]

Required:

Brand new unformatted harddrive.

Amethyst expects a brand-new, blank drive when initialising (both for backups and exclusive drives). It won't initialise any drive that has or had data on it.

Suggested drive specs:

• Removeable drive:
  
  IDE drive, 5 year warrentee,
  at least 160 GIG (not more than 1 Terabyte).
  
  We recommend a Seagate IDE 160BG (5year warranty) drive or
  a drive with at least 5 year warranty
  
  The AMETHYST recordings are compressed and we store approx 160 hours per GB.
  A larger drive can be used but is not recommended as more data will be lost should anything go wrong with the drive.
  
  
• USB drive:
  
  
  • When using an USB drive, it must have a power supply.
    
    
  • We also suggest a drive not bigger than 1 TERA BYTE for AMETHYST 1.5(if you use a drive bigger than 500 meg, you can partition it with volume label AMTARCHIVE. If the partition is full, you must rename the volume label and change the other partition to label AMTARCHIVE).
    
    With AMETHYST 1.6, you can use up to 2 TERA BYTE USB drive.
    
    
  • For older servers an update for USB might be required and you need to be on the latest version of AMETHYST. Note that you configure archiving for HARDDRIVE, if the USB drive is connected and you have a drive in the removeable tray it will not detect the USB drive. You need to shut the AMETHYST server down, remove the archive drive from the tray and start AMETHYST up. Please schedule the shutdown/restart outside recording hours as it will influence your AMETHYST recording system. After the restart you can connect the USB archive drive.
  
  Therefore your archive options is:
  
  • NFS,
  • Harddrive (either to removeable drive or to USB drive) or
  • DUAL archiving (to NFS and Harddrive).

Steps:

1. Installing the archive drive:
   
   
   • External drive:
     
     Shut the AMETHYST server down via Webadmin:
     
     Login into AMETHYST webadmin, https://127.0.0.1:3080
     (where 127.0.0.1 is the IP of your AMETHYST server).
     Select the 'Shutdown' icon.
     
     Thereafter power the server down.
     
     Insert the archive drive into the tray and lock it
     (must be locked). When the lock is switched to "ON", boot the server
     for the BIOS to detect the drive. Please note that the server must be
     powered down when you insert the drive and switch the lock to on.
     
     Please Note: While the server is switched off you will not have any call
     details (smdr) on the recordings and you will not be able to access AMETHYST
     Administrator and Supervisor.
     
     
   • USB drive:
     
     Simply plug in the USB drive and power it up. You do not need to restart
     the server.
     
     Please Note: If you are replacing a removeable harddrive with a USB
     drive, the server must be shutdown to remove the drive and then restarted.
     Thereafter you can connect the USB drive and power it up. Please do this
     outside recording hours as it will influence call details and call termination.
   
   Note: The drive must be initialize by AMETHYST via the Webadmin menu.
   
   
2. Initialize the drive:
   
   
   • If you receive the HARDDRIVE in USB container from
     Datatex, check if AMETHYST is picking up the drive:
     
     AMETHYST WEBADMIN -> CONFIGURE ARCHIVE -> Test Connection.
     
     If successfull, proceed to step 3.
     If unsuccessfull:
     
     • Either the drive was not initialize and you need to initialize the drive or
     • the USB container can be faulty - test on a Windows PC if it is detected.
   • If you supplied your own drive, you need to initialize it.
     
     Note: We have only initialized drives up to 500 GIG.
     
     Drive Options:
     
     • Removeable harddrive(phased out)
     • USB drive(connected to the AMETHYST server)
     
     To initialize the drive, log into AMETHYST webadmin and click on
     the 'Server Settings' icon to select the 'Initialize archive drive'
     option. You will be prompted to format the drive - choose yes.
     It might say failed, but got to view available disk space and see
     if displayed. It should show '/opt/amethsyt/backup/hdd' at the end of
     the percent. You can also view the drive under system status report.
     
     If it does not initialize under AMETHYST,
     you can initialize the drive under Windows as FAT32 using the MKDOSFS command.
     The volume label must be AMTARCHIVE (case sensitive).
     
     Try this link for a Windows program that execute the MKDOSFS command:
     http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s ... hl=mkdosfs
     
     ALSO SEE: How do I FAT32 format a drive bigger thant 32 GIG under Windows?
3. Configuring archiving to the removable harddrive:
   
   Log into the Amethyst webadmin.
   On the Server settings screen, click on the Configure backup settings link.
   Select Harddrive from the Backup type listbox.
   Click on the Apply changes button to save the setting.
   
   If you are replacing the archive drive, you can skip this step (already configured).
   
   If you were using the removeable drive options and are now changing it to usb,
   leave it configured as HARDDRIVE. AMETHYST will always check for USB first and then the 'removeable' harddrive.
   
4. To check if the drive is detected:
   
   
   • AMETHYST 1.5:
     Log into AMETHYST webadmin and go to the 'Server Settings' page,
     click on the 'Configure Archive Drive' link.
     
   • AMETHYST 1.6:
     AMETHYST Webadmin -> Archiving -> Configure Archive Settings,
   
   Click on the 'Test Connections' Link.
   
   Make sure that 'Archive Type' is set to 'NFS' or 'DUAL' (depending on
   which option you use with your backup).
   
   If successfull, it will display:
   
   Results from testing archive connection
   
   

   Code: Select all

   Checking backup type ... hard drive only
Mounting archive drive(s) ... OK
/dev/hda1 on /opt/amethyst/backup/hdd type vfat(rw)
Writing to hard drive ... OK
Unmounting archive driv(s)... OK

   
   
   You can also do a 'Check available disk space' to see the drive.
   Log into the AMETHYST Administrator.
   Click on the 'Server Settings' icon (Second one on the top row)
   Below the heading 'SERVER INFORMATION',
   Click on the 'Available disk space' Link.
   
   This will display how much disk space is available on all the mapped drives.

PS:

As an alternative the NFS archiving can also be enabled on AMETHYST. With
this function, the recordings are archived to the removable hard drive as
well as another PC or SAN box via Windows NFS. From there it can be copied
to harddrives, CDs etc.

ALSO SEE: Setting up NFS under Windows

[Belinda Frick]

If you bought a USB drive off the shelf and want to use it for USB archiving, AMETHYST might not pick it up to be able to initialize it.

Please contact Datatex for assistance

[kebogile Porogo]

Additional Steps to mount drive.
After inserting USB drive direct into server.

1. Check dmesg for the if drive is being


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:~# dmesg
[34777578.546391] usb 2-1.8: USB disconnect, device number 4
[34777585.383641] usb 2-1.8: new high-speed USB device number 8 using ehci_hcd
[34777585.538067] scsi8 : usb-storage 2-1.8:1.0
[34777586.536527] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Seagate  Expansion        9300 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[34777586.537543] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[34777586.540642] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] Spinning up disk......ready
[34777589.552560] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] 3907029167 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB)


Drive SDD detected
2. Check if drive is mount


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# ./mountbackup
Archive drive not found


3. View mounted drives and see if 'SDD is mounted, in this case no.


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        93G   21G   72G  22% /
udev            5,9G  4,0K  5,9G   1% /dev
tmpfs           2,4G  312K  2,4G   1% /run
none            5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
none            5,9G     0  5,9G   0% /run/shm
/dev/sda3       834G  130G  696G  16% /mnt/drive2
/dev/sdb1       931G   25G  897G   3% /mnt/drive3
/dev/sdc1       931G   14G  907G   2% /mnt/drive4


The drive is not mounted due to the Volume name of 'AMTARCHIVE' is not being detected.
Run read dos label command to view if drive SDD is labeled.


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# readdosvl /dev/sdd1
NO NAME


The volume name is not being detected and thus the drive cannot be mounted.
4. Enforce the name 'AMTARCHIVE' lable to drive SDD


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# writedosvl /dev/sdd1 AMTARCHIVE



Run the mountbackup script to check if drive is mounted and verify mounting.


Code: Select all

root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# ./mountbackup
root@amethyst:/opt/amethyst/etc# df -h
Filesystem              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1                93G   21G   72G  22% /
udev                    5,9G  4,0K  5,9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                   2,4G  312K  2,4G   1% /run
none                    5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
none                    5,9G     0  5,9G   0% /run/shm
/dev/sda3               834G  130G  696G  16% /mnt/drive2
/dev/sdb1               931G   25G  897G   3% /mnt/drive3
/dev/sdc1               931G   14G  907G   2% /mnt/drive4
/dev/sdd1               1,9T   96K  1,9T   1% /opt/amethyst/backup/hdd
//10.10.21.240/datatex  1,9T  1,7T  130G  94% /opt/amethyst/backup/nfs