topic Re: Tape device no more recognized in Operating System - HP-UX

Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:03:00 GMT

Hello,

I work on a HP-UX B.11.11 U 9000/800 machine.

There's a SCSI connection between the server and the tape device which is external.

We unplugged the connection and plugged it again. Now the tape device is no more visible.
And I cannot use it of course.

How can i check/reconfigure it?

Thanks a lot,

Stefano

Re: Tape device no more recognized

R.O. — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:12:30 GMT

Hi,

Reboot the server with the tape connected to it.

Regards,

Re: Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:14:25 GMT

It was the first thing I tried but did not get any improvement...

Re: Tape device no more recognized

R.O. — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:17:58 GMT

Hi,

Is it the tape device online? What is the result of "ioscan -fnCtape"?

Re: Tape device no more recognized

Suraj K Sankari — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:01:51 GMT

Hi,

Check the cable is it ok or faulty? replace the cable and check..
Check the tape drive into other server is it visible there ? if yes that means cable is ok
conncet to your system and do a "insf -e"
then check with ioscan -fnC tape

if still not visible then reboot your server.

Suraj

Re: Tape device no more recognized

S-M-S — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:05:38 GMT

iN 11I v1, There is no reboot require for detecting your scsi Drive..
Do what exactly Suraj suggested and try to isolate the issue

Re: Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:00:40 GMT

I performed all the actions you suggested apart from the cable check (I'm pretty sure it is not damaged).

In spite of all I still cannot see the tape device.

Output of ioscan -fnC tape is void.

I'm going insane :)

Re: Tape device no more recognized

Bill Hassell — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:14:18 GMT

> Output of ioscan -fnC tape is void.

I don't remember the word void anywhere in ioscan. What is the result of this command:

ioscan -fnC tape

Re: Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:16:32 GMT

The command exits giving no answer, which means it does not find any tape device I guess...

Re: Tape device no more recognized

Torsten. — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:23:46 GMT

If you connect or disconnect an active SCSI bus there is a good chance to produce a glitch and destroy hardware.

For exactly this reason you should always power off the server and tape before touching the cable that way.

As long as no hardware is damaged, some pins can be bent. This happens often with the evil 68 pin connectors - 2 pins together in 1 hole.

This can again kill the hardware.

Re: Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:56:52 GMT

Thnak you guys,

it was only all about a power connection problem... Now the tape is visible!

By the way.. we disconnected the SCSI cables when both server and tape devices were down, so no problem about hw problems nor any pin damaged.

Thanks

Stefano

Re: Tape device no more recognized

Bill Hassell — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:57:55 GMT

Does ioscan -f show the SCSI card? The -C tape option will indeed filter out everything that is not a tape. I have been fairly lucky in changing cables with power on -- it only fails every 20 times or so. This must have been your time to fail. The high density SCSI connectors are very prone to bent pins and forcing a SCSI connector almost always crushes one or more pins. Occasionally you can straighten them successfully but most of the time, you have to replace the cable, or worse, the I/O card.

Re: Tape device no more recognized

Torsten. — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:06:31 GMT

Such bent pins can be terrible.

First you are not sure (you cannot see) if they are really bent or not.

Then this may produce very strange behavior - tape is visible from boot console, but not from OS, it is visible but not working, not visible at all, working but slow, etc ... nasty.

Re: Tape device no more recognized

tennis player — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:40:16 GMT

It was just a power issue... Sorry if I bothered