LTT DAT24 Win2K Server Problem

[Dominik Lanzenberger]

i put an image of the server os on an ide disk.
1:1

booting the server:

nvraid enabled --> error
nvraid disabled --> works

[Jaclyn Rothe]

What version of Library and tape tools do you have?
If you had a previous version installed and you installed a new version, you would have had to uninstall the old LTT first before installing the new version. If all the parts did not uninstall correctly you would have had to download an unistall utility what would have cleaned up the remnants of the old LTT.
Go here to get the newest LTT and I would advise uninstalling the version of LTT you have now (through add/remove programs) and if it says all parts were removed successfully, continue to install LTT 3.5 SR3.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?pnameOID=406731&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=406729&prodTypeId=12169
Remember when running LTT to do tests you need to select your drive once the initial scan completes or you will not have the option of running test or upgrading firmware.

[Jaclyn Rothe]

To address the raid issue.
Tape drives do not work connected to RAID controllers. This could be complicating things for LTT. If you have a RAID in your server LTT should see all SCSI devices. Usually it will see your RAID arrays and your scsi controller cards and your tape drive. You seem to be having a unique problem. It is difficult to tell from what you have said, however, makes sure when you use LTT you select new hardware scan and nTminiport everytime... if you select saved manual scan it might generate the things you are describing.
Does LTT do the initial scan and then find no devices?

[Dominik Lanzenberger]

Hi,

i have got the latest version of LTT cleanly installed. no prior version have been installed.

I testet LTT in an other server with an promise ATA Raid --> No Problems!

I think it a unique prob. too - only appears with the NvRaid with Nforce4 Chipset...

damn - am i the only one having a backup device in an nforce chipset server? *g*

also involved Tyan Support... the think its a driver issue... i think so too...

but i wonder if Nvidia will correct this issue, because I couldn´t find anyone with the same probs, especially running an HP DAT on an Nforce Motherboard....

thx
Dominik

[Jaclyn Rothe]

Normally installing adaptec divers for adaptec scsi cards, and your back up software drivers for your tape drive resolves the issue if drivers are causing conflicts. I have not seen it happen the way yours seems to be happening.

Which back up software are you using?

[Dominik Lanzenberger]

NT Backup - dowsn´t work
BrightStor ArcServe (Standard) doesn´t work.

tested BackupExec --> works but bad performance, about 1Mb a minute...

[Jaclyn Rothe]

If you are going to use arcserve there is a different process regarding drivers that we need to do to confiure the tape drive. If you are going to use veritas there is also a different process you need to do regarding drivers.
You should only have one back up software installed on your server at one time, or the services running in the background will cause tape drive issues from the alternate back up software.
For arcserve:
go into device manager and right click on your drive, you will see a disable option for the drive, you must do this or drivers will automatically be installed by windows and this will cause back up conflicts.

For Veritas:
go to http://support.veritas.com/menu_ddProduct_BEWNT_view_DOWNLOAD.htm
select download type: driver
select version: which ever version of back up exec you have
Click on the driver it jumps you to and install that on your tape drive. Reboot your server and ensure trhough device manager that this has taken hold and is displayed as "veritas".

Always make sure that when you start LTT that RSM is still disabled and that your back up software services have been stopped.
If you are trying to use NTback and RSM is disabled, NTbackup will not work as RSm is the service for this application.

[Jaclyn Rothe]

Also, does your scsi card have a bios flashed on it?
With DAT drives you should disable wide negotiation and a slow the sync transfer rate of the controller card and the drive to 10.8mb/s.

This might help with your transfer rate in veritas.
Also ensure your block and buffer size in Veritas is set to 32K, and hardware compression is set to "hardware if available" (because the drive will self compress the data).