HP Storageworks Ultium 215 Firmware Inconsistent

[Stephen Medley]

I have just inherrited this drive and it appears to have a couple problems.

Firstly
I get the message "Script is unable to verify if this device is using latest firmware - revision data was not loaded from web"

The revision fo the firmware that I have is N31V. The latest firmware that I can find on the LT&T site is N27D. Is it possible to back patch the Firmware on the drive so that I an at least get some meaning results from Lt&T


Secondly (and possibly related to the above), the drive will only achieve a max write rate of 114MG / Minute. Based on the specs of the drive I would expect about 400 Mg / Minute.

I doubt that machine is starving the tape drive as it contains
2 SATA drives running Raid0
Athlon 64bit processor (running Windows XP)
Adaptec 29160 SCSI card with only the Tape drive on it.

I have tried the following software and got consistent results from each
Windows NT Backup
Novastor NovaBack
Veritas Backup Exec 9 and 9.1
ArcServe

Can anyone help with my speed and Firmware problems


TIA
Steve Medley
The Machine

[Marino Meloni_1]

Hello Steve,

I would like to know where you ultrium drive came from, this version of FW is a FW unsed in HP labs, and usualy have not to reach the customer,
related to the throughput of you drive, I would suggest you to try with different HBA drivers for the Adaptec controller.
I suggest you also to use the L&TT performance test to identify is the problem come form the tape path or from the disk path.
Take in mind that there is some interference between RSM and other Backup sw, so be sure to stop all the services of other Backup application when you run L&TT tests

marino

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Steve,

Marino is right, the firmware you have is a old experimental lab test version and the drive should never have been shipped with such a version of code.

I would be interested in knowing where you purchased/obtained the drive from. If you could also post the serial number from the drive that would be great. There should be a label on the bottom with this info. Failing that there should be a bar code label on the top rear of unit with a N number on it.

The N27D firmware is actually a later version to the one you have loaded in drive. The problem you are having is due to the fact that your drive has a different firmware personality to N27D and so LTT will not overwrite it.
If you phone up HP support, they will be able to provide you with a temporary password for LTT that will allow you to download N27D to the drive.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar

[Stephen Medley]

Update

I have update to the latest Adaptec XP drivers and the drive is now working at about 450 to 500 Meg per minute.

With regard to the firmware, the next time I have the cover off I will take dowm the Serial and Barcode and contact HP here in Australia to back patch the firmware.

BTW. The drive was purchased on ebay, so it could of come from anywhere.

Thanks for the help

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the update. Glad to see you are getting the correct performance now.

I would recommend you upgrade to N27D at your earliest opportunity as it contains fixes and enhancements compared to the experimental version you have in your drive.

See the following link for some top level details of areas improved
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg50463&locale=en_US

I would also be grateful if you could post the serial number here when you get it so that I can check drive history through our database tracking tools.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar

[Stephen Medley]

Dave

Is it possible to send you a private Email

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Steve,

Yes it is. My work email address is dave.dewar with the @hp.com added on the end.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar