HP Ultrium 1840 hardware encryption with BE 12.5 SP3

[joeyoung]

Just upgrade the HP MSL6030 tape library with two new HP Ultrium 1840 drives which support the hardware encryption. We are using BE 12.5 sp3.  It is up to date with the "live update". The BE can see the new drives, but it shows the "encryption no" under the device property. Create a test job with hardware encryption and run it. The error shows:"no drives were found that support the hardware encryption". Check the Symantec support list,  1840 is supported with T10 standard. Do I miss some steps to set up the hardware encryption? thanks

[teiva-boy]

Do you need to enable something from the interface of the library itself?  I'd check the manual for the library just to make sure.
Once it's enabled on the library, then perhaps BE can toggle it on or off?

And just being that it's an HP system, I'd double check that all the firmware updates have been applied too, they come out with those almost as often as Microsoft security updates ;)

[pkh]

Did you enable the hardware compression capability of the drive?  RIght-click on the drive and check Enable Compression.  See below.

[teiva-boy]

Does it matter, when we are talking about ENCRYPTION and NOT Compression?

[pkh]

Sorry.  The brain is not working properly today.  Please ignore what I have posted earlier as it pertains to compression, not encryption.

[pkh]

Are you using LTO4 tapes?  Hardware encryption is not supported for LTO3 tapes, although it can write to them.

[pkh]

@joeyoung - I re-read your original post.  If your drive property says encryption : no.  This means that BE cannot sense that hardware encryption is available.  I use a HP LTO4 and from the get-go, encryption is yes.  There is nothing to set in BE or the drive configuration to enable hardware encryption for my drive.  I just have to use LTO4 tapes.  According to HP, hardware encryption is not supported for LTO3 tapes.

Perhaps you should check with HP regarding your problem.

[joeyoung]

Thanks for the help. We are using the LTO4 tape. The property of the tape media show the "supports H/W Encryption : Yes". If you click on the tape drive, the property shows: Encryption: No.

[joeyoung]

thanks for the help. I used the "HP storagework and tape tools" to verify the firmware version. They are updated for both of the Library and the tapdrives. I may need check some settings which could enable the encrption on the drives as you suggested. I thought it should be enabled by default.

[joeyoung · Accepted solution]

Thanks for PKH and teiva-boy's help!

Here is the problem:

The fiber channel controller : StorageWorks e1200-320 4G Interface Controller's current version is 5.7.1f, but the minimum dirmware revision that supports LTO4 encryption on MSL6000 is 5.9.3d. I just verified the firmware version for library and tape drives, it is not enough. After upgrade the firmware for e1200-320 from "HP Storagework and tape tools",  both of the two drives can be seen as "encryption: Yes". And the test job with hardware encryption works well. (the BE provides the encrypton key)