Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Device ordering

The NetWorker server uses logical device names assigned by the operating system when communicating with devices. It is possible for the operating system to re-associate logical device names with the physical addresses of the devices, generally after rebooting the host or after plug-and-play events. This may cause device reordering, where the physical device will have a different device filename. As a result, tape devices configured in the NetWorker software no longer match the names of the devices as recognized by the operating system.

If device reordering occurs, the NetWorker software is unable to use any affected drives until the configuration is manually corrected.

The NetWorker server detects device reordering events by comparing the current serial number of the device to the serial number of the device at configuration. If the serial numbers do not match, the NetWorker server stops all operations on that device and an error message will be posted, similar to the alert identified for device serial number mismatch in the table Preconfigured notifications. CDI must be enabled for this functionality. Setting the common device interface provides more information about enabling CDI.