MSL 2024

[Marko H.]

After another failed try of upgrading FW on the library and tape drive I got this 2 similar messages in event viewer:

The device 'Unknown Medium Changer' disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

The device 'HP Ultrium 2-SCSI SCSI Sequential Device' disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal.

I claimed a new library without the drive.
The new library came with the new FW. I tryed to use the new library with the "old" drive and everything works OK.

Is there a probability that there is something wrong with loading of the FW - a bug in FW load procedure? I can not imagine that I am doing something wrong here. I upgraded many tape devices till now with no problems.

[Curtis Ballard]

The messages you report are normal during a firmware upgrade. After the library receives the firmware it will take itself and the drive offline and then install the new firmware. That takes long enough that the OS notices the devices are missing.

Is everything working correctly for you now? It sounds like it from your message.

Firmware updates form firmware older than 2.00 always take two downloads but usually that is all. For some reason it sounds like yours took more than 2 before finally getting the robot updated.

Firmware download problems are considered very serious and HP is working on making it as robust and simple as possible. There should not be any more updates that require two downloads.

[Marko H.]

Hello Curtis

Not everything is working correctly for me, yet.
I still have 3 MSL's to fix.

"For some reason it sounds like yours took more than 2 before finally getting the robot updated."
I got the new FW on the drive and on the MSL, but they did not want to work together - I got this curious robotic error.

"The messages you report are normal during a firmware upgrade. After the library receives the firmware it will take itself and the drive offline and then install the new firmware."
I started the upgrade in the evening and then looked at it in the morning. So the library had the whole night to get upgraded. I did this more times.
But then in the morning I could see that the FW is up to date - but I couldn't get the mail slot enabled, I couldn't open the left or the right magazine... I gor the error.

I am afraid that I will have to claim 3 more new librarys without the drive.

[Curtis Ballard]

Two questions I'm not clear on:

1) "I got the new FW on the drive and on the MSL, but they did not want to work together - I got this curious robotic error."

What curious robotic error? The only thing I can find in your message is mention of the OS reporting a new "Unknown Medium Changer" but not reporting a new drive. The drive didn't change firmware so the OS is still seeing exactly the same drive it saw before but that would be the drive from the library.

Is there some other "curious robotic error"? Something in the library logs?

2) Unable to configure the mailslot. I've seen comments about this earlier in the string but can't pick out enough details to help. Can you please post details of exactly what procedure your are following and what happens? There are only a couple of problems I can reproduce: front panel or web browser incorrect password, and not pressing "Enter" on the front panel "Enable Mailslot?" question or "Submit" on the web interface. From your description it sounds like you are seeing something other than those problems.

The only other issue I know of with enabling a mailslot is that neither the front panel or web interface will allow configuration changes while the library is performing an operation so if a move or test is in progress then you can't enable the mailslot.

[Curtis Ballard]

Marko,

Have you used the web interface at all? Some settings are easier to configure using a web browser.

To use the web browser connect your library to the network. DHCP is the default and hopefully will work for you.


Use the front panel to get the DHCP assigned network address then use your web browser to open a connection to the library.

Logging in as user does not require a password but will not allow changing configuration settings.

To log in as administrator you need to use the library front panel to set an administrator password and then you can use that password on the web interface.

[Marko H.]

Curtis,

I have used the web interface - as you can see in the attachment.
There is no option to enable the mail-slot.
If I try to open the magazine (no mater left or right) I get the error which you can see in the error.rtf .
The same thing happens after I try to open the magazine on the OCP.

Does anyone know how do the manufacturer upgrade/flash the FW on the MSL?

[Marko H.]

Sorry, this time with the attachment

Curtis,

I have used the web interface - as you can see in the attachment.
There is no option to enable the mail-slot.
If I try to open the magazine (no mater left or right) I get the error which you can see in the error.rtf .
The same thing happens after I try to open the magazine on the OCP.

Does anyone know how do the manufacturer upgrade/flash the FW on the MSL?

[Curtis Ballard]

Marko,

Thanks for the excellent posting. There obviously is a problem with the library controller communicating with the robot controller on this MSL 2024. Hopefully the behavior of the other libraries is different.

There are only two things I know of that would cause this. Incorrect firmware on the robot or a cabling problem to the robot.

Was this particular library working correctly with the 1.80 firmware?

None of the screen shots attached showed the library identity page which is where the robot firmware revision is shown. At least one of the libraries has the correct robot firmware but none of the information here gave me a serial number to match to earlier information you had posted.

To enable the Mailslot you should be able to select the "Configuraton" tab in the top "Identity/Status/CONFIGURATION/Operations/Support" bar.

In the first tab under that "System" there should be a check box for "Mailslot Enabled" and if you select that and the "Apply Selections" it should enable the mailslot. If that option isn't there then we have found a new issue not yet seen before.

Have you opened a call with HP support? If you have and can post the number then we can pull up the call details. I searched on the serial numbers provided but did not locate any open or closed cases for those numbers.

[Marko H.]

Curtis,

as you can see in the attachment I can not enable the mail slot.
The FW on the library is 2.40/1.66e which I think is ok.

The librarys when I got them had the old FW.
They were not in production (they had no tape in magazines) but I was able to open the mail slot, eject the magazines. I wanted to upgrade before they get into production. But after the FW upgrade I am not able to open the magazines... you know the error I get.

[Curtis Ballard]

Thanks for the capture of the configuration page. Finally there is an explanation for why the mailslot can not be enabled.

"Incompatible Magazine" is printed beside the greyed out check box.

Incompatible Magazine means that the library believes that the magazine currently installed in that location is not the correct one for that library.

The only case where this should occur is if a magazine without a mailslot is installed. There are three types of magazines, 1 mailslot which has 2 grab locations, 3 mailslots which has 1 grab location just like the right magazine and a dot in the lower right corner, and no mailslots which looks just like the 3 mailslot but without a dot in the corner.

Does the library have the regular 2 grab location 1 slot mailslot magazine in the left side?

I suspect that this library has a cabling problem on the robot.

Can you enable the mailslot on your other libraries? If not do they report "Incompatible Magazine"?