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BE 11d 6235 with HP MSL4048

Stormin
Level 3
I recently purcahsed a new HP MSL 4048 SCSI with (2) LTO-4 drives. I have an Adaptec 39320A-R controller for this device. I cannot seem to get the software to funtion with this library. I am running this on Windows Server 2003 SP2 with the latest updates from Microsoft.
 
What I am seeing is the following....
 
Under DEVICES I see the library with (1) drive. The other drive is listed as a StandAlone Drive. If I attept to Initialize the library I am told the device is BUSY. The library itself is full of tapes but I cannot SCAN the Slots. The software tells me all alre empty.
 
I have installed the latest device driver for the controller from Adaptec's site and run Live Update for BE.
 
There are no device errors in Windows Event Log or Alerts in BE
 
I would be happy to share any other information.
 
Any assistance is welcome.....
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Stormin
Level 3
Sorry for taking so long to respond... I was away on vacation.
 
I was working this issue from several angles. Since this was a new piece of hardware from HP (and I had a support contract), I contacted HP and had a support tech come on site. We had been using HP Library and Tape Tools to try and determine if the library, or a component of the library was at fault. Just as in Backup Exec, HP LT&T would see the library but the drives were Stand alone. The tech felt confident the issue was somewhere within the library since Backup Exec was seeing the same thing.
 
To make a short story long.... After escalating the HP LT&T logs up the food chain, there was a configuration setting within the MSL4048 that needed to be changed.
 
Under CONFIGURATION -> SYSTEM... there is a setting for the LIBRARY MODE. It was set to SEQUENTIAL... Once it was set to RANDOM... all was well. HP LT&T recognized the library with both drives under it as well as Backup Exec.
 
In short... all is well... I hope if someone else runs into this error that this post will help.

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7 REPLIES 7

Alexander_Papad
Level 4
Partner Certified
Check the h/w compatibility list and download from symantec the latest driver pack. Check in windows device manager the driver version and verify that they have the same.
If you have done all this try uninstall the devices and reinstalling them and make sure that they have the same driver and try again.
Check your SCSI connection between Library-Drives and backup server. If your controller has 2 channels try to connect the library to channel A and the 2 drives to Channel B.

Stormin
Level 3
I did check the HCL and my configuration is supported. I have downloaded what i believe to be the latest DDI (be6235RHF12_32bit_289147.exe) If this is not and there is another I would welcome some one point me in that direction.
 
I also download the latest drivers/firmware for the SCSI controller. (Adaptec 39320A-R)
 
I have uninstalled the devices and reinstalled twice to no avail.
 
I regard to your last point about connecting the library and the drives to different channels makes me think you haven't seen this particular library. I'm not exactly sure how you would do that. Also the HP recomendation is to connect each drive to a separate channel.
 
I have a gut feeling that this is just a driver/configuration issue but I cannot seem to locate it. Someone must have this configuration working.... somewhere.

nicktf
Level 4
We have a similar combination, but using LTO-3 drives with a fibre backbone, however the principles are the same. I seem to recall a similar problem, which was resolved by installing the Windows drivers for the Tape library which correctly indentified it under device manager (where it appears as under Medium Changers +> HP MSL G3 Series Autoloader) - until I had this we were also unable to use the Mailslot function. The driver for this is from HP and is 1.6.0.0 on ours. We use the Symantec drivers for the Ultriums, which should appear under the Tape drives.


Ben_L_
Level 6
Employee
Can you check in the BIOS of the SCSI controller and make sure that the RAID portion is disabled?  Using RAID enabled cards instead of standard controllers can play havoc on Backup Exec with most libraries.

Stormin
Level 3
All good suggestions folks but I have downloaded and installed the latest drivers / BIOS for the controller as well as disabled the RAID portion. I also need to enable multi LUN support which it appears this librasry requires and the SCSI card supports
 
Windows Device Manager sees the devices... the library under "Medium Changers" and the drives under "Tape Drives'
 
The HP MSL G3 Series Autoloader (x32 based 2003) has HP driver version 1.6.0.0 and the Ultrium LTO-4 drives are version 1.0.51
 
Any other ideas? It seems I have the folks at HP stumped as well... but what is disturbing is HP / Symantec all claim that this device, with this version of software, is supported.

Ben_L_
Level 6
Employee
Stormin,

run through this technote to gather some logs for me.  Enter in all 1's for the case number and select upload via ftp when prompted.  http://support.veritas.com/docs/285911

Either private message me the file name or post it here when completed.

Stormin
Level 3
Sorry for taking so long to respond... I was away on vacation.
 
I was working this issue from several angles. Since this was a new piece of hardware from HP (and I had a support contract), I contacted HP and had a support tech come on site. We had been using HP Library and Tape Tools to try and determine if the library, or a component of the library was at fault. Just as in Backup Exec, HP LT&T would see the library but the drives were Stand alone. The tech felt confident the issue was somewhere within the library since Backup Exec was seeing the same thing.
 
To make a short story long.... After escalating the HP LT&T logs up the food chain, there was a configuration setting within the MSL4048 that needed to be changed.
 
Under CONFIGURATION -> SYSTEM... there is a setting for the LIBRARY MODE. It was set to SEQUENTIAL... Once it was set to RANDOM... all was well. HP LT&T recognized the library with both drives under it as well as Backup Exec.
 
In short... all is well... I hope if someone else runs into this error that this post will help.