HP StorageWorks Autoloader 1/8 LTO3

[Lee Cave]

Hi,

We have just purchased this device and are having trouble getting the first tape to load hence have to manualy load it each time we insert tapes in order for Veritas 10 to start the backup job. I know that Veritas should recognise the device under "Tape Devices" as well as "Robotic Libraries" however it only sees the tape device and not the robotic library.

I have installed the drivers from the HP site and installed and used the Installation Check from the HP Tools software however the tools software fails in the test when trying to load the tape to test writing.

Can anyone tell me what we have wrong or what other information you may need to diagnose this problem?

Thanks, been on 3 days tring to figure this out trying different SCSI ID's and driver/software updates etc. with no joy :-(

Thanks,

Lee.

[Lee Cave]

Hi,

We have been looking at this further today and don't think it's a driver problem but more to do with the fact that the SCSI Card is not detecting the device (autoloader) which is connected to it.

The server is a HP Proliant DL380. If we attached the autoloader to the 133mhz SCSI connector the server recognises that there is a single tape drive attached but not a rebotic arm (I suspect this may be because the card does not support muli LUN's). If I attach it to a 100mhz connector however nothing gets detected!

If I connect our old DELL DLT autoloader to the 100mhz SCSI port however both the tape drive and robotic arm get detected on different LUN's when the server is booting hence I assume the card supports multi LUN's.

Does someone have any suggestions my head is spinning :-(

Thanks,

Lee.

[Steven Clementi]

Lee:

Are you talking about the SCSI connection on the back of the server? The one built into the server? If so, then that port does not support tape libraries and you will need to get an additional SCSI hba.


Steven

[Lee Cave]

Yes thats it. However I have also tried it in the 2 other SCSI HBA connectors on the back of the server, these worked fine for the DELL DLT Autoloader, booting up with this recognises 2 devices, the tape drive and autoloader. However with the new HP Autoloader nothing gets detected at all.

Cheers,

Lee.

[Satish M.S.]

Hello:

Only Veritas 10.D (10.1) is compatible with 1/8 Ultrium 960 Autoloader. If you are using Veritas 10 and older then the backup application will only see the drive and not the robotics.

Satish

[Lee Cave]

Thanks but as I say if I plug the autoloader into the SCSI HBA nothing gets detected even on the bootup screen whereas with the DELL it does, this is well before Veritas even has a chance to try and use any drivers to communicate with it. Also version 10 should work as the compatability matrix provided by Veritas shows that the HP 1/8 LTO 3 has been tested and works. Using the onboard SCSI connector does detect the drive only and not the robotic arm but I suspect this is becasue the onboard SCSI is not multi LUN hence only LUN 0 (the tape drive) is detected and LUN 1 (the robotic arm) gets skipped and ignored

Lee.

[Curtis Ballard]

What type of HBA is the second HBA that recognizes your Dell library but not the HP? You state it is 100Mhz but that is true for a lot of different HBA's.

The 1/8 must be connected to an LVD HBA and it should be an ultra 320 although you can use it on an ultra 160 with minor performance loss possible.

Is there anything else on the bus that you connect the library to when it is not detected? That sounds similar to an ID conflict. The default for the library is ID 4. You say you've tried different ID's on the first controller so I assume you know how to check/change that value.

[Lee Cave]

Thanks for the reply.

I am not sure what the SCSI card is inside to be honest, is there an easy way I can check without removing the server from the rack etc? Hardware Management only states that the SCSI adapter is a "LSI Logic 53C875/53C876 Device".

We have tried all SCSI ID's right from 1 to 8. The SCSI ID is changed on the autoloader but only has one ID for both Drive and robotic arm. each device is then placed on a separate LUN number (0 and 1).

I am begining to suspect that it is the SCSI card which is the problem (nat fast enough?).

Thanks,

Lee.

[Jaclyn Rothe]

3 things with the unit and back up exec.

#1 it is a LUN autolaoder; uses 1 SCSI ID and 2 LUN numbers if you are using an incomaptible RAID card it will not see LUN numbers and hence you will only see the drive. You need a PCI Ultra 320 SCSI card that is HBA (non-raid) for it to work.

#2 BUE only supports LUN AL with Version 10D

#3 Firmware needs to be up to date; current AL rev: 1.5
Drive rev: P54W

These will resolve your issue.

[Curtis Ballard]

The LSI53C875 was a 40Mbps maximum transfer rate chip and could be used in HVD or LVD/SE SCSI HBA's. Only the LVD version would work with your 1/8.

That controller might be able to communicate with the autoloader if it is on an LVD HBA, but should not be used with any Ultrium tape drives as the transfer rate won't be sufficient.

If the HBA is HVD SCSI then the HBA won't even see the autoloader which could be the problem here. If you are using the supplied terminator is there an LED on the terminator? If so it should be "Green". If it is off you are connected to an HVD adapter which is not compatible with this library.