HP Ultrium 960 autoloader goes offline

[Timothy Stewart]

Hi - my Ultrium 960 autoloader goes offline almost as soon as it's turned on. It was working up until about 2 weeks ago, using Backup Exec 12.5. Now when turned on, it goes online but then shows 'offline' message within a couple minutes and won't respond to commands.

[thomasr]

Which autoloader? Which HBA in your server? What's the cable length? Which operating system? Is it possible to attach it to a different server to see if it works there? Are there any errors shown through the GUI of the library?

The best diagnostics are from running HP's free Library and Tape Tools (see the link from http://www.hp.com/go/tape ) -- download, install, and run the diagnostic tests if possible. You can generate a support ticket to post here or send to HP support. If it's not online where L&TT can get to it, open the library's GUI by typing its IP address into your web browser; you can get a decent amount of information there.

Also, consider upgrading to the latest firmware through Library and Tape Tools when it has a good connection; there are a number of potential issues that the newer firmware fixes.

[Timothy Stewart]

It's a StorageWorks 1/8 Ultrium 960 autoloader that uses LTO tapes. Cable length is 3 feet. I've ordered another cable which is on they way, but I doubt that's the issue. Windows server 2008 R2 is the OS. There's no way to test with another server because it uses a PCI-x SCSI card that we had to order especially for this (Dell) server. LTT can't be used because it won't stay online for long enough. It doesn't have a network interface, so no GUI option. I had a tech look at it and they think it's a hardware error in the drive, based on symptoms. I'm looking for someone in the NYC area to repair it, but having no luck. I just posted to see if there was anything else I could try.