HP NetServer LHII errors on SCSI tape device

[Robert Varley]

I have an HP Netserver LHII with an internal HP Surestore DAT24 tape unit.
The tape is connected to one of the onboard SCSI controllers which are part of the Hot-swap subsystem. This has two SCSI ports each with two 9Gb SCSI drives.

The systems has been running for over 4 years, though during that time we have had the tape unit replaced almost annually. Recently however the symptom has recurred all too frequently.

Even when the tape is not in use, the system event log occasionally displays the error Source: aic78xx, Event 9, which gives "The device, \Device\ScsiPort0, did not respond within the timeout period" From time to time this is accompanied by error Source: aic78xx, Event 11, which gives "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\ScsiPort0.

We also use Arcserve v6.5 for backup. Its activity log also shows errors "E6300, Windows NT SCSI PORT ERROR" but not every time.

More often than not, this occurs during a backup and so the backup fails, but yesterday and today, the backup seemed to work fine, and the errors occured when the tape unit was not in use.

We have replaced the tape and the problem goes away for a while. Recently we replaced the ribbon cable and that seemed fine for about a week. Couldit be the SCSI controller?

The two hard drives that share ScsiPort0 do not appear to be affected and carry on regardless.

Can anyone suggest what might be the possible cause, please?

[Jorge Pons]

Hi

The Recommendation with Hot-Swap Bus is connect only Hot-Swap devices.
Is NOT RECOMMEND connect other devices, like Tapes. Probably all of your problems could be for this. I Recommend plug a Single Ended SCSI Controller (The simplest you have) and connect the tape.

Regards

Jorge