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Problems with SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2 and W2K3

 
Jens Baumann_2
Frequent Advisor

Problems with SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2 and W2K3

I have the following system:

DL380 G3
SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2, drivers from SP24875, firmware patched via ltt_ssl_jul04.exe
HP 64-bit/133MHz Ultra320 SCSI controller, driver 1.10.1.0 (latest)
Windows Server 2003

I want to use the SSL1016 via removable storage service. The problem is that the server does not reliably "see" the SSL1016.

At first, everything looks fine (removable storage shows library/drive and I can access everything), but then I get the "the device \device\scsi\symmpi1 did not respond within the timeout period" event error, which usually should be caused by a driver- or firmware-related problem, but I already have the latest ones installed. After a while, event log shows "tape library has a new status of 5 (offline)" and that's it - no more SSL1016. CIM shows the library as "offline" and even a reboot of the server does not solve the problem (then the devices show up in device manager, but removable storage does not show them anymore). I have to do a reset of the SSL1016 to get everything to show up again.

Another weird effect is that when I want to see the properties of the tape drive itself in device manager, I do not get the properties dialogue - device manager hangs. Properties of the medium changer itself show up OK.

I fiddled around for some days now, even did a complete reinstall of the server. Can anybody tell me a combination of driver/firmware which WORKS for these devices? Are there any pitfalls in the installation process I should avoid?
3 REPLIES 3
josemaria cr
Regular Advisor

Re: Problems with SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2 and W2K3

What software did you plan to use? Did you try it?

Perhaps in the Certified Device List of the manufacturer you can see the fw supported and it helps you to set the most stable versions.

jmc
Scott McIntosh_2
Honored Contributor

Re: Problems with SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2 and W2K3

The very common problem I've been seeing lately are these PCI-X SCSI cards. Move the card to another PCI-X slot. Or get a normal PCI SCSI card.

This is a very common problem with the PCI-X cards/slots, on HP and Dell systems. Not sure what the problem is with PCI-X, but there's something there.

Thanks,
Scott
HP Support
Jens Baumann_2
Frequent Advisor

Re: Problems with SSL1016 LTO Ultrium-2 and W2K3

Ah, I completely forgot about this post, since the problem was solved a week ago. It is completely embarrassing to post it, but the culprit turned out to be the terminator on the SSL1016. We were completely sure that it was seated correctly, but after removing it and plugging it in again, the problems disappeared. So, as a reminder: if you have weird problems with your autoloader - check *everything*, even the things you are SURE are correct...

Still, thanks for your suggestions!