Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Persistent binding

Persistent binding guarantees that the operating system always uses the same SCSI target ID for SAN devices, regardless of reboots or other events, by statically mapping a target's WWN address to a desired SCSI address. On some operating systems, this is done by default, while on others it has to be set manually. The operating system documentation provides further information.

In most cases, persistent binding should also be set on the Host Bus Adapter (HBA) by using the configuration utility that comes with the Fibre Channel HBA. The HBA device driver documentation provides details.

Persistent binding is required for consistent library operations within NetWorker, because the NetWorker server communicates with the library controller over a SCSI address that is chosen during initial library configuration. If the SCSI address changes, the library will become unavailable. In this case, disable the library and change the “control port” address to reflect the new SCSI address of the library controller.

If devices have already been configured in NetWorker prior to enabling persistent binding on the host, delete existing devices from the library resource and perform a re-scan of devices followed by a reconfiguration of the tape library.