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

[Lance Oldham]

Hello, We have an rp7410 cold installed with HP-UX 11.31. Its firmware is up-to-date. We have an external DDS4 tape drive attached to the Core I/O SCSI interface. The OS does not see the tape drive. We have verified that estape and stape modules are in the kernel (status is "static"). We have ran the Offline Diagnostic "mapper2" and it does see the drive and correctly identifies it. Shouldn't this tape drive work under 11.31? Thanks.

[madhuchakkaravarthy]

hi

can u plz post the output for dmesg

regards

MC

[Lance Oldham]

Hello, Here is the dmesg output. Thanks.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Lance,

1) Did the tape drive work on the previous version of HP-UX on the system?
2) ioscan -fnC tape
3) Is the scsi card the tape drive is connected to compatible with the drive?
4) The kernel drive status should be on or installed. But this may be an 11.31 change.
5) Check the cables involved are good, try different ones. You should have spares around.

SEP

[Lance Oldham]

Hello Steven,
1) Yes, on 11.11
2) Returns nothing
3) It's Ultra 160, which should be LVD and the DDS4 is wide-LVD/SE.
4) Kernel module status is "static" (only other option is "unused".)
5) Have tried another terminator and I will next try a different cable.

Thanks, lko

[Patrick Wallek]

Post the output of 'ioscan -fn' please.

[Lance Oldham]

As a test a DVD-ROM was added to the SCSI chain along with the DDS4 drive. I can now see both the DVD-ROM and the DDS4 drive but I cannot see the DDS4 when it is the only device connected. Is there a way to resolve this? The DVD-ROM needs to go back to the system it was borrowed from. This is I/O scan with paths removed to save space. Thanks.

ext_bus 2 c8xx CLAIMED INTERFACE SCSI C1010 Ultra Wide Single-Ended
/dev/c8xx2
target 10 tgt CLAIMED DEVICE
disk 19 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE HP DVD-ROM 6x/32x
/dev/dsk/c2t1d0
/dev/rdsk/c2t1d0
target 9 tgt CLAIMED DEVICE
tape 18 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C5683A
/dev/rmt/18m
/dev/rmt/18mb
/dev/rmt/18mn
/dev/rmt/18mnb
/dev/rmt/c2t3d0BEST
/dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTb
/dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTnb

[madhuchakkaravarthy]

hi

after seeing dmesg ,,, i guess there is no pblm with cable from the attachment u posted,,
if so
then my suggestion is try to change the cable.

regards

MC

[Lance Oldham]

Hi MC, Looks like now we just need to figure out why the DDS4 is only visible to the server when another device, in this case a DVD, is also on the chain. Only thing we need attached is the DDS4. The interface is Ultra 160, the DDS4 is WIDE-LVD-SE SCSI and the DVD is SE SCSI. Thanks.

[Torsten.]

What kind of terminator do you use?

[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.