Surestore 718 'No Drive' after drive firmware update

[Will Saxon]

Hello,

I just reconnected an unused 718 autoloader and updated firmware on in via the LTT tool. The autoloader itself updated fine, but the tape drive itself did not come back online after its update completed. Even the autoloader itself thinks there is now 'NO DRIVE.'

What can I do to remedy this? I have rebooted the machine a couple of times, and have power cycled the autoloader and rescanned the bus a few times, to no avail.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Will, I'm afraid that drive has died. Autoloader may use its internal bus to detect drives (not external SCSI but) so if autoloader says that there's no drive - and you did not re-configure physically cables and components inside autoloader - simply updated firmware - then drive is dead. Replace drive
BTW, did you try to powercycle autoloader (not server)? The actions you can do in this situation are only replace external (to autoloader) cables and terminator(s) and try checking drive again with its front panel
Eugeny

[Will Saxon]

So, is it often that firmware upgrades render a drive inoperable? This drive has been around here longer than I have, but it's not more than 3 or so years old - is this longer than the rated lifetime of the product? I would expect it to be out of warranty although I am not sure.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Will, I did not hear about cases when drive dies after fw upgrade. LTT is intelligent tool and should not update with corrupt or unsutable firmware
Your result may be caused by incorrect SCSI bus setup (cable, terminators etc) so fw image may be transferred incorrectly to the drive
But this may not be a case if you had successful autochanger update. Firstly, please check firmware file downloaded if it is correct and complete. Try to download it from www.hp.com and check with what do you have now
Eugeny

[Will Saxon]

I have zipped up the entire log directory and forwarded it to the above email address.

Is there a way to force a new firmware image onto the tape drive in this situation? Is there perhaps an eeprom that is removable and programmable externally?

[David Ruska]

As mentioned, LTT matches firmware files to each device, and will not send the wrong file. It also checksums the file and ensures they are not corrupt before sending it.

I am assuming the host does not see the drive on the SCSI bus?

The 'NO drive' messsage on the library front panel means the drive is not communicating across the ACI (serial) port between the library and drive. Normally a power-cycle of the library will resolve a problem with the drive is hung and not responding.

If you have the EventLog.ltt file in the LTT logs subfolder for the day the update was done, we can look to see if the drive reported that it successfully updated firmware. Unlike the library, the drive does not have any boot code. So if something went wrong in the flash update process, there is no way to retry it. We've not seen any issues with DLT drives going brain-dead after firmware updates.

Note: LTT keeps event logs for the last 10 times it was run. The older logs have the words 'backup' in their titles. If you send it to ltt_team@hp.com, we can look at them.

[Will Saxon]

I'm pretty sure the drive was attached correctly. Looking at the back of the unit, there is a terminator on the right (library) side, with a short connecting cable between the next two (right to left) ports, with the last port connecting via a fairly short cable to the scsi controller (compaq smart array integrated 5i). Tape drive and autoloader were detected correctly at boot. The autoloader is still detected but of course the drive itself is not.

If I could get our MSL5026SL to actually read the DLTIV media using Backup Exec 8.6, this would not be a problem. But the new library will not do so. Because of this, we were keeping the 718 around.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Will, if 'array conroller 5i' is RAID controller then it is recommended not to use it for autoloader. For recommended HBAs please look at http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50063.html . It states you need 'AHA-2940 Ultra Wide' or 'AHA-29160lp ultra 3 wide'
Eugeny