About device serialization

Device serialization is a firmware feature that allows device identification and configuration. A unique serial number identifies a device.

NetBackup determines device relationships by comparing serial numbers from multiple sources that refer to the same device. If both a robotic library and a drive fully support serialization, NetBackup can determine the drive's position (or address) in the robotic library.

Most robots and drives support device serialization.

If a device supports serialization, the following actions occur when NetBackup queries the device:

Each robot and each drive return a unique serial number.
Each robot also returns the number of drives and the serial number for each of the drives in the robot. NetBackup uses the information to determine the correct drive number for each drive in the robot.

If a device does not support serialization, ask the vendor for a new firmware revision that returns serial numbers. Even with the proper firmware, some devices require the vendor to perform other actions to enable serialization for the device.

If you know that the devices do not support serialization, make sure that you follow the maximum configuration limits that the devices allow. You also must coordinate the drives to their device files or SCSI addresses so you can configure them correctly.

The more devices in the configuration that do not support serialization, the greater the chance of configuration problems by using the Device Configuration Wizard.