NetWorker command: ssi
NAME
ssi - StorageTek silo interface module (Unix only)
mini_el - event logger for use with ssi (Unix only)
libstlstk - shared library for communication to ssi
SYNOPSIS
ssi [ -A ACSLS server ] [ -a ACSLS port number ]
[ -S SSI port number ] [ -P port number ] [ -r retry count ] &
mini_el [ -l logfile ] [ -d ] [ -h ] &
libstlstk.so (Solaris)
libstlstk.so.a (AIX)
libstlstk.sl (HPUX)
libstlstk.so.1 (SGI)
libstlstk.so.1 (DYNIX/ptx)
libstlstk.so (DECAXP)
libstlstk.dll (NT i386)
DESCRIPTION
NOTE: in this document, the term "ACSLS server" will be used to
indicate the name of the system that is running any one of StorageTek's
library manager programs: ACSLS on a Solaris or AIX host, Library
Station on an MVS host, or Horizon Library Manager on a system running
Windows NT or Windows 2000.
(Unix only)
The ssi command is used indirectly by nsrjb to communicate with an
ACSLS server. nsrjb loads libstlstk, which handles the TCP calls to
and from ssi. ssi then handles all of communication to and from the
ACSLS server. Starting with ACSLS version 5.3, it is possible to run
NetWorker (either a server or a storage node) on the same host that
ACSLS is running on.
ssi and mini_el must be running on the system on which jbconfig was run
to create the jukebox resource. ssi and mini_el are almost always run
as background processes, and are usually started automatically by the
system.
In addition to ssi and mini_el, a shared library file (usually called
libstlstk.xxx where xxx is an operating system-dependent extension) is
also required. An appropriate version of this library is installed as
part of NetWorker.
New in version 2.00 of ssi:
ssi now supports communication with the ACSLS server on a specified
port number, using the -a command line option. This is part of the
STK firewall enhancement. The ACSLS server must be running version
7.1 to use this functionality.
While you can still start ssi the same way as before - using the
environment variable CSI_HOSTNAME to select the ACSLS server to
connect to - you can also specify the ACSLS server hostname on the
command line using the -A option. By using the -a option, you may
specify the port number that the ssi process will use when connecting
to the ACSLS server. The ACSLS server must be configured to listen on
this port. Using the -S option, the ssi process can be configured to
listen for response messages on a specific port. You may also specify
the port number used for communication between NetWorker and that
particular instance of ssi using the -P option. The allowed values
for this port number are 50004 (for the first instance), 50011 to
50019, and 50021 to 50099. Note that if you specify a port number
that is already being used by an instance of ssi, the specified port
cannot be used, and the next available port in the allowed range will
be selected. If the port number is not specified, each successive
instance of ssi will take the next available port starting from 50004
and going upwards. If there are no available ports in the range, ssi
will fail to load and should display an error message. Note that
specifying the port number is not necessary for normal operation. You
do not need to insure that a given ACSLS server is always accessed
over a given port. NetWorker and ssi use the name of the ACSLS server
to establish a connection on the fly.
If the -A option is not used to specify a hostname on the ssi command
line, the environment variable CSI_HOSTNAME must be set to the name of
the library server, before the ssi process is started. If this
variable is not found, ssi will exit with an error message.
mini_el is an event logger used by ssi to maintain a log of certain
events. It should be started before ssi. Multiple instances of ssi
will share a single instance of mini_el. A header consisting of the
ACSLS server name and the local TCP port that ssi will be listening on
is included at the start of any message placed into the log by any
instance of ssi
(NT only)
On NT, the software equivalent to ssi and mini_el must be obtained
from StorageTek as their product "Library Attach for NT". This
package must be installed prior to configuring a Silo in NetWorker.
NOTE: Library Attach version 1.1 includes a portmapper function that
will only install properly if the NetWorker services are not running.
You should use Control Panel to stop the "NetWorker Backup and Recover
Server" and the "NetWorker Remote Exec Service" before installing
Library Attach. After Library Attach is installed, you should use
Control Panel to start "NetWorker Remote Exec Service" and "NetWorker
Backup and Recover Server".
NOTE: Since EMC does not supply "Library Attach for NT", we are unable
to add the multiple ACSLS host functionality to our NT version of
NetWorker.
NOTE: The firewall enhancements added to the ssi and mini_el processes
are not available on systems running Windows.
(All platforms)
libstlstk.xxx is a shared library that handles the communication
between nsrjb and ssi or Library Attach. ssi or Library Attach then
handles the communication over the network to the library server
(either ACSLS, Library Station or Horizon Library Manager). There are
no options, parameters or environment variables that affect the
operation of libstlstk. The correct path to this file should be
entered when an STK silo is configured using jbconfig. The default
values specified by jbconfig match the default locations chosen for the
installation program, and in most cases can be accepted.
OPTIONS
mini_el:
-l logfile
Specifies the filename of the logfile to be created by
mini_el. The default value is /nsr/logs/ssi_event.log. If
present, logfile must be the complete path to the logfile. If the
file does not exist, it will be created. If the file does exist, it
will be appended to. If there is not a -l parameter, the
default logfile /nsr/logs/ssi_event.log will be used.
-d Sets the debug flag. mini_el will output debug information.
-h Displays usage information for mini_el.
ssi:
-A ACSLS server is required if the CSI_HOSTNAME environment variable
has not been set to the name of the system running ACSLS,
LibraryStation or Horizon.
-a ACSLS port number is only required if you need to specify the port
number used for communication between the ssi process and the
ACSLS server. If the ACSLS server is configured to listen on a
specific port, this value should be set to that port number.
-S SSI port number will force the ssi process to listen on the
specified port number. This port is used in communications with
the ACSLS server.
-P port number is only required if you need to specify the port to be
used for communication between NetWorker and the ssi process.
The allowed values for this port number are 50004 (for the first
instance), 50011 to 50019, and 50021 to 50099. Note that if you
specify a port number that is already being used by an instance
of ssi, the specified port cannot be used, and the next
available port in the allowed range will be selected.
-r retry count is only required if you need to increase the retry count
for communication between ssi and the ACSLS server due to
network problems.
These parameters are not position sensitive. The command line option
will be parsed accordingly in the ssi process.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
ssi
CSI_HOSTNAME (text, up to 256 chars, there is no default)
If an ACSLS server name is not found on the command line, ssi
will use the hostname specified by this variable. It is limited
to 256 characters, and should simply be the hostname running the
library server program that you are trying to connect to. If
neither the command line hostname nor this environment variable
specify a hostname for ssi to use, ssi will exit with an error
message.
SSI_HOSTNAME (text, up to 256 chars, there is no default)
This variable is intended for use on multi-homed systems.
Normally, ssi uses the gethostbyname system function to
determine the name to use for this side of the connection to the
ACSLS server. On a system with several network interfaces, the
name supplied by that function may not result in the use of the
network interface needed to communicate with the ACSLS server.
On these systems, you can explicitly specify the exact name of
the network interface that ssi will use to connect to the ACSLS
server. This variable needs to be set before ssi is started,
and may be different for various instances of ssi In all cases,
a message will be logged in the event log stating if this
environment variable was found, and if not, that ssi will be
using the hostname returned by gethostbyname. This is not an
error message.
SSI_BASE_SOCKET (numeric, 0 < x < 64k, no default)
If you need to restrict the socket values that ssi communicates
on, this variable specifies the starting number for ssi to use
when it needs to open a socket to talk to the ACSLS server. It
appears that ssi will only open two sockets if this variable is
set. The first, at SSI_BASE_SOCKET, will be used to connect to
any host. The second, at SSI_BASE_SOCKET + 1, will be used for
direct communication to the ACSLS server. Note that there will
still be the default sockets at 50001 and 50004 used to
communicate between mini_el and ssi, but any communication
between this host and the ACSLS server should occur using the
two sockets starting at SSI_BASE_SOCKET.
TIME_FORMAT (time format string,
default = "%m-%d-%y %H:%M:%S")
If you wish to see time values printed in a format other than
the default of Month-Day-Year Hour:Minute:Seconds, use this
variable.
%m is replaced by the current month
%d is replaced by today's date
%y is replaced by the current year
%H is replaced by the current hour
%M is replaced by the current minute
%S is replaced by the current second
CSI_CONNECT_AGETIME (seconds, 0 < x < 31536000, default = 600)
This will set the number of seconds for network connect aging
purposes.
CSI_RETRY_TIMEOUT (seconds, 0 < x < ??, default = 4)
This will set how long ssi will wait before retrying a network
request.
CSI_RETRY_TRIES (numeric, 0 < x < 100, default = 5)
This will set the number of times ssi will retry sending a
network message before reporting an error.
CSI_TCP_RPCSERVICE (boolean, default is TRUE)
This sets whether ssi will use TCP sockets to connect with the
library server.
CSI_UDP_RPCSERVICE (boolean, default is FALSE)
This sets whether ssi will use UDP sockets to connect with the
library server. Setting CSI_UDP_RPCSERVICE to TRUE will allow
ssi to communicate with a csi that is running on the same
system.
EXAMPLES
Normal STK silo setup:
mini_el &
ssi acsls1 &
- or -
mini_el &
setenv CSI_HOSTNAME acsls1
ssi &
Connect to 3 different ACSLS servers:
mini_el &
ssi -A acsls1 &
ssi -A acsls2 &
ssi -A acsls3 &
- or -
mini_el &
setenv CSI_HOSTNAME acsls1
ssi &
setenv CSI_HOSTNAME acsls2
ssi &
setenv CSI_HOSTNAME acsls3
ssi &
Connect to 3 different ACSLS servers over 3 different
network interfaces:
mini_el &
setenv SSI_HOSTNAME myhost_on_net1
ssi acsls1 &
setenv SSI_HOSTNAME myhost_on_net2
ssi acsls2 &
setenv SSI_HOSTNAME myhost_on_net3
ssi acsls3 &
Connect to ACSLS server configured to accept connections on port 30031
mini_el &
ssi acsls1 30031 &
- or -
setenv CSI_HOSTNAME acsls1
mini_el &
ssi 30031 &
To have
mini_el use /nsr/logs/ssi.log.today as its log file
mini_el -l /nsr/logs/ssi.log.today &
ssi acsls1 &
FILES
/nsr/logs/ssi_event.log
default logfile created/appended to by mini_el
SEE ALSO
nsrjb(8), jbconfig(8), dasadmin(8), libstlemass(8), libstlibm(8)
DIAGNOSTICS
Several startup and shutdown messages along with any errors in communi-
cation between the NetWorker server and the ACSLS server will be logged
in the logfile /nsr/logs/ssi_event.log (or other logfile as specified
on the mini_el command line). The messages from any one ssi instance
will be preceded by the name of the ACSLS server that that instance
will be communicating with plus the local TCP port number that will be
used between NetWorker and ssi.
For example:
10-12-00 12:31:44 SSI[0]:
[devlab-acsls/50004] ONC RPC: csi_init(): Initiation Started
source csi_init.c; line 165
10-12-00 12:33:20 SSI[0]:
[acsls2/50011] ONC RPC: csi_init(): Initiation Completed
ONC RPC: csi_init(): ACSLS server acsls2 accessed through port 50011
NetWorker 7.5.1 Mar 21, 09