Not all tape drive paths created when using insf

[Matthew Bialczak]

Note the following ioscan -fnC tape:
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
========================================================================
tape 51 0/5/0/0.102.0.255.0.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE IBM ULTRIUM-TD3
/dev/rmt/c69t3d0BEST /dev/rmt/c69t3d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c69t3d0BESTn /dev/rmt/c69t3d0BESTnb
tape 53 0/5/0/0.102.0.255.0.4.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE IBM ULTRIUM-TD3
/dev/rmt/53m /dev/rmt/53mn /dev/rmt/c69t4d0BEST /dev/rmt/c69t4d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/53mb /dev/rmt/53mnb /dev/rmt/c69t4d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c69t4d0BESTnb


There's more, but the first 2 suffice to display my problem. Note there are only 4 device paths for the first tape drive, and 8 defined for all the rest. All the tape drives are all the same in the same chassis (ADIC scalar i500). We are having problems getting our application (NetBackup 4.5) to work with the drives, and are looking for excuses. That particular drive is not the drive used for the robotic. Any reason as to why only 4 drive paths were created, and do I have a problem?

More puzzling, is that this came up when we attached the ADIC to a A6795A 2 gig Fibre Channel HBA. After conceding defeat, we went back to the original 1 gig HBA, re-installed the Special files and all drives have the normal 8 drive paths...and of course, NetBackup is working again.

Even more interesting is that when we tried to use the 2 gig HBA, NetBackup was able to send commands, but not get acknowlegements. So the command to mount a tape was sent, but NetBackup never received acknowledgement that the tape was loaded. All the NetBackup tools could unload, move tapes, reload, etc, just the NB application to back up a policy failed waiting for acknowledgement that a tape was loaded.

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

insf -e
insf -C disk

This helps?

SEP

[Fern H2O]

Hey shalom,

Try this insf -eC tape

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

reading all you have put, it seems more likely software issue with the 2gb cards.

What server is it and what is the version of HPUX running, and is it patched upto date or reasonably.

would be interesting to know if these patches are installed if 11.11
PHSS_31326 and PHKL_34161
http://www5.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHSS_31326&sel={hpux:11.11,}&BC=main|search|
http://www5.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHKL_34161&sel={hpux:11.11,}&BC=main|search|

Also what is the firmware version of the said server?

did fcmsutil report the card ok aswell?

Andy

[DCE]

Matthew,

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago.

I solved it by performing a rmsf on the tape drives with only 4 device files, and then running the insf command.

For some reason insf would not create the device files I wanted until the I removed the old ones. Then it created all 8 device files, and the tape drive worked properly for me.

HTH
Dave

[Matthew Bialczak]

I can't test insf -C tape until I put the hba back in again, but curious why specifying the Class would make a difference...especially when the four other drives insf'd at the same time were appropriately set up.

[Matthew Bialczak]

Hi Andrew,

I think you got it. I do not have those patches, and the descriptions are similar to my problems. Yes, I'm running 11.11 but don't have either PHSS_31326 or PHKL_34161. It won't hurt anyway, for those patches to be installed so will do this first, then try again tomorrow night. I will update & assign points to this Thread at that time.

HI DCE

When you mentionned rmsf, I also recalled a similar situation years ago. In response to just the 4 drive paths, I think your answer is right on as well....but the 4 drive paths is not my NetBackup problem. Thank you for reminding me though, because I want this fixed as well. As mentionned, I need to wait till tomorrow and will give results then.

[Sandman!]

It could be that the instance numbers for the tape drive changed between the two HBAs. Have you compared the output of ioscan between the two HBAs, meaning the diff in the output of...

# ioscan -funC ext_bus

[Andrew Rutter]

Matthew,

did you find a soloution to the problem?

would be good to know for others that may search in the future with the same problem.

post back if you did

Andy