Can not see DDS4 tape drive on HP-UX 11.31 system

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom again,

I think either your tape drive is dead, the cable is bad or the scsi connection is not properly terminated.

SEP

[Lance Oldham]

Hi, Cable from server to HP C4318B rack enclosure is HP C2362A. Terminator is HP C2364A LVD/SE.

[cnb]

This sounds like a termination issue.

Check the SCSIDiffsnse & Term PWR LEDs on the Core I/O and note their condition when the drive is being detected along with the DVD connected.

Then compare the LEDs when the DVD is connected by itself and then again with the DDS4 alone to isolate whether you have a termination, cable or other configuration issue.

Rgds,

[Torsten.]

Please clarify your configuration:

Server - DDS - terminator (doesn't work)

Server - DDS - DVD - (different) terminator (works)

???

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

the c2362a cable will be fine, its an lvd cable only 90ohm but should be sufficient for the tape device.

the c2364a terminator is correct too, but i have seen these fail over the years. strange and knowing abit about how they work seems difficult to work out why, but they do.

I would also check the pins in the terminator. if just one is bent and not connecting you will likely get the result you are seeing

dont suppose there is anything in the syslog.log about the scsi interface on boot up?

Andy

[Lance Oldham]

Torsten, Yes; Server - DDS - terminator (doesn't work)
Server - DDS - DVD - terminator (works)
These are true for two different cables and two different terminators.

I thank all of you very much for your help. I'll be experimenting with your suggestions when I retun on Monday. Thanks, and have a good weekend. lko

[Lance Oldham]

After a great deal of plug-and-check testing it appears that the DDS4 tape drive can be connected to the rp7410 interface by itself if the LVD/SE terminator is replaced with a regular SE terminator. Only remaining issue seems to be that if the boot up is stopped at the BCH and a SEArch is ran it doesn't find the tape drive but if a boot (hardware path to tape) command is entered then it is found. I have successfully created two Ignite/UX recovery tapes and have been able to boot from them. Thanks to all who helped. lko

[Torsten.]

I have seen something similar in the past - the reason was a bent pin at the terminator (or the cable).

[Lance Oldham]

Thank you. I never found any bent pins. Even though the back of the tape drive says it is Low Voltage Differential/Single ended SCSI, I could only see it on the bus by itself by replacing the LVD/SE terminator with a regular SE terminator.