SCSI and DLT

[Fred Martin_1]

I have a defective DLT drive, it's conected to a SCSI interface on the back of my rp5450. It is the only device on -that- interface, and is terminated.

Since it's the only device on the chain, can I power it off and swap out the drive without affecting anything else?

[Fred Martin_1]

i.e. can the server stay up and be in use...

[DCE · Accepted solution]

It should stay up without any issue. I just had DAT drive (only device on the interface) swapped out by an HP engineer, and he did not have to interupt the system at all

[Rick Garland]

Removing a SCSI device from a running system is always a risky task.

I always make sure that there is no activity on that chain then remove the device.

Has not let me down with this methodology.

[TwoProc]

A device on a scsi chain by itself, in particular a tape drive (b/c you KNOW if it is or is not in use) is no problem to swap out. Make sure the new drive comes in at the same SCSI address and you can use the old /dev/rmt/[interface] files w/o change.

[Fred Martin_1]

The DLT is alone, it's the only thing listed in the HW path: 0/7/0/....

[Rick Garland]

No activity on the chain - yank it.
Replace with new device. As mentioned, make sure SCSI ID is the same if you do not want to reconfigure stuff.

AGAIN, make sure there is no activity on the chain.

[Fred Martin_1]

Thanks folks. I think I'm good to go.
Fred

[A. Clay Stephenson]

This is a routine swap for me. Remember, a SCSI bus reset is a NORMAL (if infrequent) incident on a SCSI bus and the protocol is designed to handle it. I just did one one bus with more than one devive not 5 minutes ago.

[generic_1]

I think youll be fine. :)
After you have it reaplaced, scsi id set, on power.

Doa ioscan -fnC tape and make sure it shows up as claimed.

Then do a tar test or something quick and easy before you CE leaves as a test.

You should be good to go.