Ignite-UX and Ultrium drives

[ITeam]

I want to be able to make a bootable tape recovery using Ignite-UX, but I have been informed that Ignite-UX cannot make an Ultrium tape bootable. Does anyone know if this is the case, or have I been misinformed? The system is configured with 2 Ultrium tape drives only, no DLT or DDS.

Many thanks, Graeme.

[Cheryl Griffin]

Supportablility information would normally be contained in the Ignite Release Notes: http://www.software.hp.com/products/IUX/docs/release_note_A_B.3.7.html

However the release notes have not been updated with the Ultrium information yet. (No ETA on when this will be published yet.)

The problem is not with Ignite, its with the Ultrium: some have boot support, some don't.

So if your model has boot support, then it should work with Ignite.

Cheryl Griffin

[Denise Kent]

From a document I have found:

"Ignite/UX boot from tape. Both DDS-4 and Ultrium have shown problems when
booting a ignite/UX tape when connected to the single-port Ultra-2 SCSI HBA
(A5150A). This is currently under investigation."

It is still under review.

Kind regards
Denise

[ITeam]

Thank you for your repsonses. The setup we have is 1x A6313A HP SureStore E Ultrium Libr 2/20 SA LVDS with 2x A6307A HP SureStore E Ultrium Tape Drive LVDS connected to 2x A5150A Dual Port Ultra 2 (PCI bus) Adapter in an RP7400 server.

[Hai Nguyen_1]

Graeme,

Your HW is exactly the same as mine. The only difference is that my Ultrium LTO is connected to an rp5450. I asked an HP storage engineer the same question back in April and was told that the HP IGNITE-UX lab had never tested Ultrium drives. Therefore, HP could not support the configuration. However, the engineer told me that it does not mean that such a configuration will not work if it is not supported by HP. He also confirmed that he knew some of his clients were able to use LTO drives as bootable device. I have not yet tested it.

Hai

[ITeam]

Hai,

I logged a call with HP directly and here is the body of the response I got back.
"The answer to your quiery is a qualified yes.

1, Most PCI cards are supported. If you can say which ones are going to the
library, I can confirm the supportability.
2, Your Library is supported direct connect over fibre with A5158A Tachlite
cards (there are later which are currently under test in the lab).
3, Ultrium 215 & 230 are supported.
4, PDC on the N class is needing to support iodc to allow searchability &
data upload at boot/install needs to be 41.02, but the one I would go for is
42.06 (latest).
5, If you are booting over fcms there will be driver & patch minimums - let
me know if this is the case.


I would stress to you that as part of the disaster recovery planning, I
would make a recovery tape & try it before it is needed in anger. This
could be done with a "blank" boot disk, just in case something goes wrong
during the reinstall, to allow you a way back.

Another stage before this to check the tape made is good is to use the
check_recovery command, which will compare the boot disk with the made (but,
say, not used) tape.

Please remember it only deals with vg00.

I hope this is answering your questions, if not please contact me back.

Best Regards,
Stuart Street
Response Center Engineer"

I gave him the details of my last resonse here on the forum and the response I got was.

"Hello Graeme,
This is supported.

Best Regards,
Stu Street".

Hai, I hope this helps with your situation as well.

Many thanks, Graeme.