Shared Devices Appear as Unavailable or Offline

Valid on Windows platforms.

Symptom

The shared devices on SAN-attached Member servers are marked as unavailable or offline.

This could be caused by the order in which the Arcserve Backup Tape Engine services were started in the domain.

• If the Arcserve Backup Member server's Tape Engine service was started before the Primary server's Tape Engine has finished initializing, the Member server will wait for the Primary server for a period of time, but eventually will start without being able to "share" the devices.
• If the Arcserve Backup Member server's Tape Engine service was started before the Primary server's Tape Engine service was started, the Member server will wait for the Primary server, for a period of time, but eventually will start, without being able to "share" the devices.

Solution

Check the Arcserve Backup Activity log to see when, and in what order the services might have started. Make sure all devices on the Arcserve Backup Primary server are initialized, then just restarting the Tape Engine service on the Member server(s) should be enough to resolve this.

Important! When starting the Tape Engine service in an Arcserve Backup Domain that is part of a SAN, it is important to always start the Primary server's service first and let it fully initialize before starting the Tape Engine service on any of the Member servers.