ML370 G3 and IBM/Seagate STD2401WL Tape Drive

[Alex Daskalakis]

Hello
I am currently setting up a ProLiant ML370 G3 server under Linux and i have been given an IBM/Seagate STD2401WL tape drive from am old IBM server. I am currently having trouble getting the on-board scsi controller (either port 1 or 2) to read it. I have changed the ID of the tape drive from 0 to 15 excluding 7 which is the controller id and yet, when loading the array console it comes up with (i.e tape is on id 6) multiple LUN numbers for id 6 and, at the end, a 'SCSI Bios not installed!' message. Am i missing something in the id configuration of the server ?

Thanks in advance

Alex

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Alex,
I've found the following
"20/40GB SCSI DAT 68PIN LVD (STD2401W)"
thus interfaces should be compatible. I think that the problem is in embedded controller BIOS - it may not support this drive or not support this drive with current firmware it has.
Please note that SCSI BIOS installs only if it finds supported bootable devices - BIOS is required only to boot from the device. Maybe this drive is not supported to boot from?
I would try with addon generic Adaptec AHA-2940UW controller.
BTW, you're telling that BIOS says 'not installed'. But can you access drive for OS?
Eugeny

[Alex Daskalakis]

Hi

Well i tried something else - changing the controller id for the separate ports only to screw up the kernel. That said, i did think about the firmware but i think that, in this case, where we are talking about an old tape drive, a scsi adaptor with recent upgrades whould have been able to recognise it. Also i have no knowledge of Linux/Unix and someone else built the kernel and installed linux on the server. All i am concerned about is that it can't be recognised hardware-wise by the onboard controller. The server runs SuSE 8.2 so if you can help me find the correct commands for accessing the drive i'd be very glad

Thanks

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Does this drive have a jumpers somewhere? I've tried to find manuals, but they're unavailable neither from Seagate nor from IBM.
If your drive really has jumpers then I would suspect that for different platforms (PC, Unix, etc) jumper settings can be different (like with HP tape drives which have 8 dip switches at the bottom)
Eugeny

[Alex Daskalakis]

There are 1.) jumpers for the scsi id and 2.) dip switches for the various OS settings, parity and termination power.

I found an old pdf with the dip switches settings and set them to Other OS as the pdf showed no support with linux but had support for things like Unix (HP, et al), Win NT and Vines. I played around with those dip switches but nothing happened. The only thing i can think of is the mention of firmware upgrading but where am ito find a firmware upgrade of a virtually non-existant scsi tape drive ?

One other solution i thought of was changing the scsi cable used for the hard-disks ( as it is has a single scsi connector), using a multi-port cable and hooking up the tape drive to that, although i am not sure what id number to give it, as the server has 3 hard drives in a raid 5 config..

[Eugeny Brychkov]

As soon as you're using PC-type server you should set dip switches appropriately.
Please clarify: are you trying to connect tape drive to RAID controller's SCSI channel?
Eugeny

[Alex Daskalakis]

The mainboard has two onboard scsi connectors (not sure if it's raid). I have hooked it onto both.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Please check. I've found http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantml370/benefits-g3.html , and I would use 'removable media bays' and their SCSI bus(es) to connect tape hardware. Please remember that RAID controllers may NOT (in most of the cases) support tape device correctly
Eugeny

[Alex Daskalakis]

I found out today that an old co-employee that used to work with us had successfully installed the compaq version of the above drive (the new one) without so much as a blink. When we first received the server we were given an identical tape drive like the compaq, yet had the same problem with the ibm. Could this be a fault in the raid controller ?

[Eugeny Brychkov]

It's hard to say. The rule says: "do not connect tape drives to RAID controller channels as this RAID controller may not handle drive correctly, and in addition tape drive may slow down SCSI bus (RAID controllers are usually LVD but tape drive may be SE)".
In your situation I suspect that problem may be in different drives' firmware. This one may have firmware developed for IBM AIX operating system. BTW, which part/product number analogous Compaq drive has?
Eugeny

[Alex Daskalakis]

To be honest i remember seeing on the tape drive a sticker that wrote LVD/SE so i am assuming that it should be compatible. As for the Compaq drive we had that all of 1 day si i didn't get the chance to remember the model number but it's the latest one that Compaq made - 20/40GB DAT Drive.

It sounds ever so likely that the firmware you talked about - made for IBM AIX - sounds like the biggest problem for it; that, and the fact that it may be an old firmware edition. I'll see if i can get hold of someone to give it a check but, since it doesn't work on the proliant, i am not sure if i can hook it up to the old ibm server and check it as loads of components have been removed and i am not sure if the kernel loads up anymore - last time we tried it it spat out error messages left, right and centre.