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Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

 
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Tom_131
Advisor

Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

I am upgrading a production 9000 (HPUX 11.) with a single drive DLT8000 to a hp surestore/storageworks vs80 1/8 tape autoloader.

When I scan the ports, I get /dev/rmt/c5t3d0BEST, /dev/rmt/c5t3d0BESTb,/dev/rmt/c5t3d0BESTn,/dev/rmt/c5t3d0BESTnb drivers come up.

Assuming I take down the current Tape and replace the tape with the autoloader with the same SCSI id, will these drivers work correctly with the autoloader? I would guess this should work since no drivers were included with the autoloader.

Generally I use Omniback to interface with the tape BU, so I do not go into hardware very much so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!
4 REPLIES 4
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor

Re: Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

Hi,
As it is recommended to shut down and power off the server before changing SCSI devices (I assume this is not a "hot swap") the most easy is to remove the device files before shutting down. New files is created when you restart the server.
Tom_131
Advisor

Re: Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

Sorry, I should have mentioned rebooting. The hot swapping does not work very well on this box. But will switching out the unit like I descibed work correctly?

Thanks
Eugeny Brychkov
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

As Leif mentioned you should remove device files, shut system down, reconnect new device (autoloader), then boot server and check with 'ioscan -fn' if drive is recognized and device files created. This drive should use the same driver 'stape'. Fpr autochanger, if it will not be recognized (I=-1, UNCLAIMED and UNKNOWN) you will need to include either 'schgr' or 'autox0' drivers, rebuild kernel and reboot aain, then check 'ioscan -fn' again to see if it became claimed
Eugeny
Brian M Rawlings
Honored Contributor

Re: Upgrade from a DLT8000 to vs80 autoloader Question

Hi. Eugeny nailed it (as usual), but you have another issue that hasn't been mentioned. This is unrelated to kernel drivers or device files, but will likely impact you in a different sore spot.

VS80 drives use a distinctly different format than DLT4/7/8. The issue this causes is, any MEDIA cartridge (the ubiquitious "Data IV" media used in all DLTs) that has been used in a DLT4/7/8 will not work in the VS80. When you try to load them into the drive, it will hum and click and whirr, and then spit it back out with an error about incompatible, or bad format, or something (I forget exactly).

You will scratch your head, and get a new, unopened Data IV cartridge out of its box, and try it, and it will work fine. OK, bad tape, you will think. NOT. The "bad" tape will work fine in your DLT8000.

In order to wipe the standard DLT format off enough of the tape header for the VS80 drive to use it, there is supposedly a demagnetizer (degaussing) tool that will wipe the Data IV cartridge clean of all data and preamble/formatting. I haven't seen one, that's what I heard.

So, if you have a lot of existing media you are hoping to use, you will need to look into this, and probably need to buy the magic degaussing tool.

It will be easy to confirm whether this is still an issue (I have an older 1/9, maybe they have cured this by now ??), you should go ahead and try an old tape... just be ready for the results I've described. It took me way too many itterations of "try/puzzle/try again/repeat" before I researched this and discovered that I needed brand new media to make the thing happy.

Hope this shortens your learning curve! --bmr
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