DLT7000 and 11i Compatibility

[Kevin Bushman]

I did a search and found nothing that directly addresses my problem so here goes.

We just installed some Ultra-160 SCSI cards in a rp8400 with the intention of connecting them to DLT7000 taped drives. We are running 11i on the system with two NPAR's. We can't get the O/S on either partition to recognize the tape drives and now HP is telling us that DLT7000 drives are not supported under 11i.

These drives are in a StorageTek 9710 library that is being controlled (robotically) via a Sun system, so they would just be direct connect drives as far as the O/S is concerned.

Is there any truth to what we are being told by Support?

TIA

[Stefan Farrelly]

A load of rubbish in my opinion. Were running them successfully on a lot of 11i servers! Our ioscan looks like this (below). HP sold us the drives, weve had support on them, and them replaced when faulty.
HP may not support your StorageTek library - you shoul check with StorageTek to see if they say 11i is supported.

Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
======================================================================
tape 1 1/0/0/0.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP Ultrium 2-SCSI
/dev/rmt/1m /dev/rmt/1mnb /dev/rmt/c15t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/1mb /dev/rmt/c15t3d0BEST /dev/rmt/c15t3d0BESTnb
/dev/rmt/1mn /dev/rmt/c15t3d0BESTb
tape 0 1/12/0/0.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE QUANTUM DLT7000
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c14t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/0mb /dev/rmt/c14t3d0BEST /dev/rmt/c14t3d0BESTnb
/dev/rmt/0mn /dev/rmt/c14t3d0BESTb

[Stefan Farrelly]

Ah, Ive just checked and found all our DLT7000's run on our 11i rp servers on Fast-Wide, NOT ultra160. I guess theyre supported on FW only;

Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
======================================================================
ext_bus 14 1/12/0/0 c720 CLAIMED INTERFACE SCSI C87x Fast Wide Differential
target 40 1/12/0/0.3 tgt CLAIMED DEVICE
tape 0 1/12/0/0.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE QUANTUM DLT7000
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c14t3d0BESTn

[Kevin Bushman]

I understand your answer, but...

From HP's own documentation on the A6828A cards:

"The A6828A provides 16-bit (Wide)...LVD and 16-bit...SE SCSI solutions for your system... [It] also supports legacy Fast SCSI devices, Ultra SCSI devices, and Ultra2 SCSI devices."

So, shouldn't this card also support the DLT7000's?

[doug mielke]

My hp rep is telling me that a DLT7000 will not run on any Ultra. ( I keep an old K class here to only run my backup SW and the DLT7000.
I wonder what HP means by 'support' on the 6828s. Wouldn't all that direct support require a couple of different physical connectors?

[Stefan Farrelly]

could be documentation is wrong, or the HP driver doesnt support it (card may). If I recall we tried to get a DLT7000/8000 working on an Ultra160 card and couldnt get it to work either.

[Kevin Bushman]

To answer a couple of questions, which then brings up a couple as well.

We have the 7000's connected via a cable with the 68-pin VHD connector on one end and a 68-pin HD on the other. It's as simple as that.

Stephan, you stated that yours are connected to a Fast-Wide card. Which one? Looks like I may need one for my rp8400 that will be supported under 11i. Also, what brand of drives are you using (ours are Quantum)?

[Pete Randall]

Kevin,

I've got DLT8000's and DLT4000's connected to the A5159AR dual port FWD SCSI-2 cards.


Pete

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

From HP's own documentation on the A6828A cards:

"The A6828A provides 16-bit (Wide)...LVD and 16-bit...SE SCSI solutions for your system... [It] also supports legacy Fast SCSI devices, Ultra SCSI devices, and Ultra2 SCSI devices."

So, shouldn't this card also support the DLT7000's

------------------------------------------

No, and the documentation is actually correct. The card supports SE-SCSI2 but not FWD SCSI-2 which is also referred to as High-Voltage Differential (HVD SCSI). You have to read those compatibilities really carefully. HVD SCSI devices are not compatible with anything else --- and that includes terminators. Connecting HVD and LVD devices on the same buses sometimes causes catastropic failures including fireworks.
You need either an A4800A (single port) or an A5159A (dual port) FWD/HVD SCSI controller. Also note that at most one ACTIVE DLT 7000/8000 is supported per HVD SCSI bus. You can put more than one drive on the bus just don't have more than one spinning at any one time.

The really stupid part about this is that HVD/LVD/Ultra cannot be distinguished by the cables. This was almost as dumb as that PC design idiot who realized that DB-25's --- which had been used for serial connections for decades --- would make a really nifty parallel connector. The idiot compounded the problem by using the female connector --- which everyone was already using as serial ports --- instead of the male connector for the parallel port. And then, well, since the female connector is already in use on my PC, I think we'll use the MALE DB-25 for out serial port.

[Stefan Farrelly]

Were us A4800A FWD scsi cards on our rp servers with our DLT drivers. Were running Quantum DLT's.

[Kevin Bushman]

Ok, so here's the latest. DLT7000's are HVD Fast/Wide SCSI2 devices. The Ultra-160 cards are LVD only and will NOT support DLT7000 drives. They just aren't compatible.

So, the solution (thanks to A Clay Stephenson for the great explanation), use either A4800A or A5159A cards. However, on checking on the spec's on these cards, I found that these aren't compatible with an rp8400 (although some may be using them in these systems). According to the on-line documentation, the A4800A is only compatible with numerous systems up to a V-Class system and the A5159A is compabible with A, L, and N-Class systems only.

To use a card that IS compatible with an rp-class system you need an A5159B card. The doc's for this card specifically states it is compatible with all rp's, the SuperDome, rx, and zx-class systems. I'm not really sure what the differences are between the PCI slots (other than revisions) of V-Class and rp-class systems are but this is what the doc's state.

So, looks like I have an answer. Thanks to all for the help. Now I have the ammunition to go back to the parts guys and tell them they got us the wrong cards!

[A. Clay Stephenson]

I checked my Configuration Guide and both the A4800A and A5159A are compatible with an rp8400. You can also go to partsurfer.hp.com and enter rp8400 and then "List all parts". You will find both of them there cards listed.

[Kevin Bushman]

Went and checked to verify and you are correct. The documentation for the cards themselves apparently needs to be updated!

Thanks to all for the help!

[Jean-Luc Oudart]

We have DLT7000 connected to N-Class with A4800A.
HPUX 11.0

Regards,
Jean-Luc