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Verify DLT8000 status

 
Riccardo Favaro
Contributor

Verify DLT8000 status

Hi,
due to several DLT (HW) failures, a customer ask me to implement a solution that every day check the status of the library, and send/write the result.
The library is a Quantum DLT8000 plugged on a n4000 running hp-ux 11.00 and OBII 3.5.
Any suggestion will be precious.
Thanks a lot
Riccardo
rfavaro@iss.net
4 REPLIES 4
A. Clay Stephenson
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Verify DLT8000 status

Hi:

My first suggestion would be to fix the hardware; this shouldn't be happening.

You could script up some tests using cstm but you would also have to load and unload the drives using the uma command.

My approach would instead be to use uma to
1) move a tape from a slot to a drive
2) offline the drive
3) move the tape from the drive back to a slot
4) Do a stat command

Repeat for as many drives as you have.

I would use the last slot in the library and reduce the OB2's number of slots by 1. That way OB2 knows nothing about this slot; uma can still address the slot. That way the use of uma will not confuse OB2.

Man uma for details. You will have to parse the stat (or inq) output and errors will print to stderr; you will have some awk (or perl) to do.
If it ain't broke, I can fix that.
Vincent Farrugia
Honored Contributor

Re: Verify DLT8000 status

Hello,

You should see why all these DLT failures are happening. Maybe they just need a cleaning cycle. DLTs do not fail left, right and centre usually.
Tape Drives RULE!!!
Gabriele FACCHINI
Frequent Advisor

Re: Verify DLT8000 status

If you connetct the mnagement card to your local network you can also use a browser interface to monitor the state of DLT8000. digiting the ip address of the management card.
Otherwise if you have OVO (Openview vantage point operation) you can load the appropiate trap, cofiguring the host to send the snmp trap in the library.
Gabriele Facchini
Michael Tully
Honored Contributor

Re: Verify DLT8000 status

If you have several drives in a library, suggest you check to make sure that *all* drives have the same firmware level.

Clay's suggestions are excellent, only thing I can add there is to use 'mc' instead of 'uma' The reason is that 'uma' does not show barcodes in the output and 'mc' does.
Anyone for a Mutiny ?