Drives disappear from LTT

[martin_113]

Hi

I have 2 msl6060 libraries with 2 LTO drives and a NSR in each connected together with a PMT.
I can see all drives and controller from device manager on the server and LTT until I install the driver for the tape drive, then I can still see all drives in device manager but not in LTT. The tape drive or drives with the driver are not accessible by LTT

LTT = 4.1
Driver for Tape device = hplto.sys version 1.0.3.1

If I uninstall the device, rescan hardware in device manager device returns to a HP ultirum 3 SCSI sequential device and it now appear in LTT.
Install the driver (hplto.sys) and it is still in device manager named as Hewlett Packard LTO Ultrium-3 Drive but it does not appear at all in LTT.
I have rebooted in between removing and reinstalling the driver and also after the driver install always the same result????

Any thoughts anyone

TIA

Martin

[Marino Meloni_1]

be sure you do not have RSM active, be sure you do not have a previous backup application installed and not completely removed (check in services)
only one application at a time should manage the drives, this can be the cause of the problem.
Strange that the HP driver can be the cause of this behavior. have you tried with a different version of LTT?

[martin_113]

Yes I have tried with a previous version LTT.
The RSM Service is disabled.
All backup software services were stopped at the time.
On the up side the fact that LTT cannot see the drives, has not stopped them working without any other errors or problems.

[Curtis Ballard]

This behavior isn't that odd. Something on the system is opening the tape device for exclusive access. The application opening the device for exclusive access only recognizes tape devices devices that have a driver installed. From the application perspective there is a \\scsi3.0.4.1 device (made up path) when no driver is installed and a \\tape0 device when a driver is installed. L&TT recognizes both types of device paths.

You don't even have to uninstall the drive to see the difference. Just disable the device in the device manager and windows will disconnect the \\tape0 device "file" but L&TT will still be able to find the device.

I usually see this when there is a backup application configured to use RSM and RSM set to auto-start so it immediatly grabs the device for exclusive access. You said that RSM was disabled and the application was shut down so I can't say for certain what would have the device locked but it would be some application on the system.

There is probably a tool that will tell you what applications have a device open but I'm not aware of one. If anybody knows of one a post here would probably help a lot of people.