BE 2010 R3 + HP Ultrium 920

[Kris_ten_Hoedt]

Hi,

We've got a brand new install of BE 2011 R3 on a server with 2x HP Ultrium 920 connected to it.

The problem is that BE doesn't see any changes in the drive status.
When a tape is ejected manualy, it stays on as loaded media.
Even when 2 tapes are swapped between the drives, and a inventory is forced on either one of the drives, BE still thinks the tapes are as they were before swapping.

Only restarting all the BE services will initially solve the problem, but after one action with either of the drives it will be stuck in that state, so when a tape was loaded during the restart of the services I can eject, rename or inventory the media just once, and then the drive stays in whatever state it is left after the last action.

I did all the HP Tape Library & Tape Tools tests, they all passed with flying colors.

All the tapes are brand new as well.

This is the setup:

- DELL PowerEdge 2800 / 2x Xeon 3.2 / 10GB mem
- 2x Adaptec 29160 SCSI adapter
- 2x HP Ultrium 920 LTO3 tapedrive (external, one on each controller)
- W2K8 R2 64bit English, all updates in place
- Symantec BE 2010 R3, all updates in place

Thanks!

[Striker_303]

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH163202

Also Disable the following HP services, and reboot the server and test another backup:  

   -  HP Insight Server Agents
   -  HP Insight Storage Agents
   -  HP Insight Foundation Agents

   -  HP WMI Storage Providers service

[Kris_ten_Hoedt]

Unfortunately the fix described in article 163202 didn't resolve my problem.

However, after applying the registry changes something seems to have changed.
I can now do a backup and then eject by BE. But when I re-insert the tape, the media doesn't appear in the device, so in the device overview both tape drives show empty, while both have a tape inserted....

Just for the record, there are no management agents of any kind installed on the machine. 

I've attached a diagnostic report I just generated.

[Striker_303]

Make sure Symantec drivers are installed for tape drives and showing properly in device manager

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH24414

[Kris_ten_Hoedt]

However, I discovered something else:

When I re-insert the tape(s) they don't show up in the device(s) automatically, but when I do a inventory run it will recognize the tapes.

Is this normal behaviour?

[Striker_303]

Yes..when you insert a new tape, you have to inventory, for BE to recognize it.

[Kris_ten_Hoedt]

... you say it is normal for BE to show empty drives even when a tape is inserted???

I don't recall seeing this behaviour in previous versions of BE.
Must be a new feature then.

Isn't there some secret setting somewhere like "Run Inventory when media is inserted/ejected"

[Striker_303]

You should eject tape from BE console \ via option in backup job and it would be aware

or do a inventory after change.

Backup may work if a tape is in the drive and inventory not done though.

[pkh]

... you say it is normal for BE to show empty drives even when a tape is inserted???

I don't recall seeing this behaviour in previous versions of BE.
Must be a new feature then.

No.  This is the behaviour since forever,  When you insert/eject a tape, this is a hardware function and the hardware will not know which application is using it, thus there is no notification.  When you do an inventory, BE is updating its status of the hardware state and hence it will be able to tell whether a tape is in the drive or not.

[CraigV]

...on a Dell server, there are NO HP agents installed...