HP72X6 woes...

[Rob Pelletier_2]

I would appreciate some advice from someone out there using the 72X6 tape changer.
I called HP, and they proved to me that it works, using LT&T. Trouble is, my client didn't buy this thing to test it, they bought it to back up a server. And that is something that this thing won't do.
I am trying to use this thing on a Windows server with BackupExec 10.1. All appropriate driver and BIOS upgrades have been applied, and I have carefully configured the SCSI adaptor as per the guidelines published on the Veritas site.
The drive is shown in the Windows and Veritas device configurations. When the system is booted, the drive goes through a rather long procedure of mounting and dismounting tapes, and at some point I either get a flashing orange lamp and LCD message (SemiLoaded - Clean Me), or it eventually stops, apparently satisfied. (Believe me - it doesn't nee dcleaning, and the tapes are all new) The SLOTS page for the device shows one or two tapes instead of the 5 in the magazine. When I try to do a test backup, the backup fails immediately, the alert says the Physical Drive Mount failed.
What does a person have to do to get this device to work? If I remove it and attach it to the old Novell server, it works fine.
Are there other steps I need to take to configure this thing?
My main complaint is that there is no documentation that I can find to tell a person how to use this thing. How does it decide whether to use the same tape each night or whether to use a different one for each backup? Where can I tell the software that the cartridge in Slot6 is in fact a cleaning cartridge, and how do I configure a weekly cleaning?
Why can HP tell me none of this? I hesitate to ask Veritas, because I am likely to pay for a support call that yields nothing useful - just more frustration.

[Peter Godron]

Rob,
I assume you have found:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Home.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodClassId=-1&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=402370

[Rob Pelletier_2]

Yes, I've found that, and more. To me it amounts to little maore than "Is it plugged in" and "Is it turned on?"

I have spent days going through lists of things like this to check, and am frutrated at how little help support has been.

I tried changing the SCSI ID to make sure the software recognizes the ID change (it did) which should have confirmed communications, but the software now wasy the device is offline.

I am amazed at how HP is willing to leave me alone out here with their $2500 piece of junk...

Also troublesome is that this drive is on an in-service server, so I can't be re-booting every time some HP support guy suggests it. So I take some notes, re-boot after hours, find I still have problems and have to wait until some other time to call back, take some more notes...

Now I have to figure out a way to tell my client that I can't get his expensinve piece of equipment working...