Library disappeared after applying BE 11d SP2

[MitchR]

Before this last weekend, I applied BE v11d Service Pack 2 to my backup servers. At the time, I thought everything looked good.

I came in this morning, and found that every job over the weekend failed, and no backups are running at all.  Closer inspection shows that my main BE server and both media servers are unable to see the library, yet they do see the 4 drives in the library.

I've tried:

-Rebooting all servers, and the library (in various combinations)

-reapplying BE v11d SP2

-applying the latest drivers (Hotfix 29)

-Deleting & trying to re-add via the BE device wizard

-Rebooting after each of the above

I thought that...

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/289555.htm

...was my problem, but the media server that's running PowerPath is at v4.6, not v5.0

We're running a Dell ML6000 via fiber.

I'm now on hold with Symantec support... :(

[MitchR]

Update:  After talking to Symantec support for over an hour (re-apply this patch, reinstall drivers, reboot, repeat, repeat....)  with no luck, I found the cause.

While the library was powered on and working, my ML6000 was set to off-line.  Apparently this setting survives a reboot on the library itself. (joy)   A vauge memory tells me we had this same problem last time we did a firware update.

Now we're having problems using any tape slot over 100, reporting:

    The job failed with the following error: Library error - invalid element address.

After reading the "How to troubleshoot library issues" document, I'm trying to downgrade the library firmware to see if that helps.

[MitchR]

Final update:

The problem accessing slots over 100 wasn't a firmware issues.  After talking with Dell support (who answered the phone faster and knew more about Backup Exec than the Symantec level 1 tech), I did the following:

-Uninstall all Symantec drivers from the server (via the wizard)

-Reboot

-Install all Symantec drivers (via the wizard)

-Verify the Device Pools had all of the correct drives

He tells me that BE sometimes gets confused after a firmware update, and you need to delete & reinstall the tape drivers.

All is well for now....  hope these notes help the next guy to get into this problem!

[Hywel_Mallett]

---

Mitchell Ross wrote:

...BE sometimes gets confused after a firmware update, and you need to delete & reinstall the tape drivers.

---

I have seen this myself after a firmware update on a standalone tape drive. After the update BE was convinced the "old" drive (before the firmware update) was offline, and there was a "new" drive (the same drive after the firmware update). I had to delete the "old" drive to avoid confusion.