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Qualstar library not found - Funny story yet sadly true

Douglas_Dahlber
Level 4
Let me begin by saying this is more of a vent / open letter than a question. I found a solution to all my delimas. Answer is at the end of this post. If you are not interested in reading about another BE user unhappy with the quality of Symantec's techs then skip this post.

We had purchased a Qualstar 8236 tape library to replace our old Exabyte 430. The Qualstar is on the BE hcl. Bundled with our library came an ATTO 2500 iSCSI bridge. The library is a standard SCSI library. Hooking the SCSI cable from the library to the bridge made the device and instant iSCSI device. A configuration not tested or supported by BE.

Adding the library to our existing BE server seemed easy. I removed the old library from BE. Shut down the server. Disconnected the cables. Started up the sever again. I then installed the lasted driver set for 10d. BE found the library and the two LTO-3 drives inside thru iSCSI. At this point I was pretty happy. I had the server backup everything on our network that weekend. The server backing up data maxed out at 2,1000mb / min. I was very happy at this point.

That Tuesday I had to reboot the BE server. BE came up and found the two LTO-3 tape drives but not the library. After stopping and starting services, rebooting the server and the tape library, nothing seemed to work . In an act of desparation I uninstalled BE completely including the driver update.

Reinstalled from scratch. Added all the hf's, latest driver update and still same problem. 2 drives - 0 library. Which kind of sucks since the library has 36 available slots.

I called Symantec and logged a tech support call (ID 290-385-xxx). We paid for 24x7 support. May as well take advantage of it.



I was put in a hold que for maybe 15 minutes. Then enters Avinash . Avinash was a very pleasant and polite individual. I'm sure he is a very nice person and I mean him no ill will. But I had some immediate reservations.

1. The hold message warned callers of long hold times due to the hurrican threatening Florida that week. Naturally I assumed Avinash was located some in or around Florida. He was not.

2. The VOIP connection was really poor. Or his headset was really poor. Combine that with his foreign accent and communicating with him proved very difficult.

'Nash had me join a Webx session. Now his connection to the WEBX session was really bad. He was around 45-60 seconds behind me on every screen.

Anyway 'Nash had me go into device manager and right click on the tape drives and uninstall and then scan for changes several times. Trying to get them to be recognized by BE. Which ironically some how he couldn't do. We restarted the server and tape library several times. Enough times to fill a 60 minute phone call. That's all he did. He didn't ask to look at BE diagnostics. He barely glanced at Windows event logs. 'Nash was definitely a 1st level tech. Kind of like the ones that monitor this forum from time to time.

Moving along during one of the many reboots I asked him how long had he been working with BE.

ME "How long have you been using Backup Exec?"

Avinash "Two years. I'm certified in SQL, Exchange, etc,."

I think to myself. Gee. I've been using BE since it was sold by Seagate. I've run it on Netware 3.11, NT 4.0, Windows 2k & Windows server 2003. On more tape and libraries than I care to remember. But that doesn't mean I know everything and that Avinash can't be of use here.

So I asked him about my configuration.

ME "You see that I have the library connected via iSCSI?"

Avinash "Yes. I know SCSI".

ME "iSCSI?"

Avinash "Yes. SCSI".

Now the phone is terrible. His accent is thick and the webx session is dragging really bad. I figure it's not going to be my day. Well after the sever comes up after the last reboot and doesn't find the library again Avinash has an idea.

Avinash "Lets conference in IBM. The makers of those drives."

ME "Wouldn't you want to talk to Qualstar since drives are in the library. And it's the library we can't get to work not the drives?"

Avinash "I want to conference in IBM."

ME "Can you handle that?"

Avinash "Sure. No problem."

At this point I'm thinking this guy might be a one trick pony but at least he is trying. A full minute of silence goes by then...

Avinash "So do you have IBM on the phone yet?"

ME "Me? No."

At this point I realize I'm on a snip hunt and I'm the one holding the bag. Like I have that kind of pull with IBM. While I'm at it conference in Bill Gates to cover the OS portion.

I always felt sorry for individuals without a support contract who go thru the forums hoping to get an answer for their problem from a Symantec tech. Really it's those super users on the front page that really get things done here. All the Symantec techs can do is read the subject line and rattle off a url to an install doc.

Now I find myself dealing with those same ineffectual individuals. Except I paid specifically for their services. Agh!

Well after finshing the call with "I'll talk to IBM on my own then, thanks Avinash" I tried to get my call escalated to another tech but I kept being sent back to Avinash. He kept emailing me and leaving me voice mails. They didn't understand I wanted someone better.

So here I am stuck with a library that works but software that won't. The tech support for the software is useless. I have to backup and protect our data. I don't have a choice but come up with a solution quickly.

Long story made semi-short. I fired Symantec. I decided to go with another product. Netvault by Bakbone. They let you download and use all their software for 45 days.

Why?

1. Their business model handles tech support per user region. If I call tech support and I'm in North America I talk to someone in North America. If I'm in Asia, I talk to someone in Asia, etc..

2. The software is only a 25mb download.
3. The software does not use drivers. It is object oriented. Issues SCSI commands directly. Doesn't go thru device manager.
4. I had a problem with initial setup. I had a sales engineer contact with me 1 hour of calling their hot line. I'm not even a customer yet.
5. It's very very fast and efficient. I've hit 3.8gb/min when backing up.

Like I said I mean no ill will to Avinash but Symantec has to realize they have run the Backupexec product into the ground. The support they offer is terrible. All you have to read is the forums here to see that. The only good advice you can get here comes from the community of users not Symantec.

Not that it matters one bit to them but Symantec is fired. We are no longer renewing our support agreements after 10 years of doing so. No more throwing money down a well for us.
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