MSL2024: SAS drives not detected by L&TT

[toomas_aas]

I have a MSL2024 attached to Proliant DL180G6 using Smart Array P411 controller. When the system is booting up, controller messages indicate that two "tape or cd-rom" drives attached to the P411 are found. However, when running L&TT from the OS, it indicates that tape drives are not found, only the library.

The OS is SLES11 SP1 x86_64 (Linux 2.6.32.12-0.7-default). I have also installed the HP cciss driver (cpq_cciss-4.6.24-5). Prior to running L&TT I disabled the scripts that autoload my backup software at boot (Tivoli Storage Manager) and rebooted the server, so there should be nothing besides L&TT attempting to access the tape drives. L&TT version is ltt-4.10.0.0-4. SmartArray firmware is 3.00 (I see that 3.50 has been released but get a 404 when trying to download it).

The result of hardware scan performed by L&TT:

Building Device Map
Found HBA: 'scsi_adapter' at address '1-6-0', driver: unknown
Checking address '60.0.0[6-/dev/sg0]'
Checking address '60.0.1[6-/dev/sg1]'
Found Device: Found 'HP MSL G3 Series' at address 60.0.1[6-/dev/sg1]
Checking address '60.1.0[6-/dev/sg2]'
Checking for redundant devices.
Searching for drives of Library 'HP MSL G3 Series' at address '60.0.1[6-/de...
3rd Method: finding drives by serial number
Drive with serial number 'HU10159TM0' could not be found
Drive with serial number 'HU10159TLU' could not be found
Found only 0 of 2 drives.
2 drives of library at address 60.0.1[6-/dev/sg1] could not be found

The contents of /proc/scsi/scsi seem to indicate that Linux at least partially agrees the tape drives are there:

Attached devices:
Host: scsi6 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI Rev: U51W
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi6 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 01
Vendor: HP Model: MSL G3 Series Rev: 4.90
Type: Medium Changer ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi6 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI Rev: U51W
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05

Any advice is welcome.

[toomas_aas]

Well, a surprise. Using the SLES in-box cciss driver instead of the one provided by HP, L&TT can see both drives and Tivoli Storage Manager can also use them. Only needed to follow this Novell document: http://www.novell.com/support/dynamickc.do?cmd=show&forward=nonthreadedKC&docType=kc&externalId=3611352&sliceId=1.

[toomas_aas]

The plot thickens. I ran the L&TT 'LTO Drive Assessment test' for both drives, which ended with encouraging message 'The test has PASSED and the drive is GOOD.'. Tivoli Storage Manager can label the tapes, but attempts to actually perform a backup result in failure:

ANR8302E I/O error on drive DRIVE1 (/dev/tsmscsi/mt0) with
volume EID621L4 (OP=WRITE, Error Number=22, CC=0, rc = 1,
KEY= FF, ASC=FF, ASCQ= FF, SENSE=**NONE**, Description=An
undetermined error has occurred). Refer to the &STGM;
documentation on I/O error code descriptions. (SESSION:
7, PROCESS: 4)

Does this look familiar to anyone? TSM docs say that the reason is most likely outside TSM, but given that L&TT passes the test I'm somewhat doubtful.

[toomas_aas]

I currently have a support case open with IBM and they are not sure what the problem is, but suspect the CISS driver. So I've got to ask - is anyone at all using this combination (SLES11, SmartArray 411, MSL2024 and Ultrium 1760 SAS drive) successfully, and if so, what version of CISS driver are you using?

[toomas_aas]

Just bumping the thread and mentioning that upgrading the Smart Array firmware to 3.50 and tape drive firmware to U52W didn't help.

[toomas_aas]

One other thing I haven't mentioned yet. With HP driver, the following lines are output to the console while booting:

cciss_hotplug: the format of /proc/scsi/scsi is not as expected
cciss_hotplug: not removing any devices, since accidentally removing a disk would be bad

It seems this is the output of running /etc/init.d/cciss_scsi, which is installed by the HP driver.

[toomas_aas]

The problem was finally solved by replacing the Smart Array with Adaptec 1045. The first TSM job is writing it's 3rd LTO4 tape as I type