Veritas Driver for Dell PowerVault 124T?

[Bernard_McLean]

I have recently upgraded from an old (1997!) Exabyte tape changer and drive system to a new Dell PowerVault 124T and am having some configuration problems. The Exabyte changer functioned fine attached to our Dell PowerEdge 2400 with Windows 2003 Server with BE for Windows Servers v10 rev5484.

After connecting the new PV124T, W2003 immediately recognized it and loaded drivers. Win2003 Device Manager showed the autoloader under Medium Changers and the Certance Ultrium2 tape drive under Tape Drives.

After starting BackupExec V10 rev 5484, the Certance tape drive was switched to a Veritas driver, but the Dell autoloader remained on a Dell driver.

The BE Device Configuration Wizard only shows the Certance Tape Drive. Removing the check mark on Enable Library in the Win2003 Removable Storage Manager as instructed by the Wizard did not make the autoloader appear.

Is there a seperate Veritas driver for the Dell PV124T autoloader like there is for its tape drive?

I'm on BE v10 rev5484 with hotfixes 24, 30 and SP3 installed. I have run the v10 rev5484 device loader program to update drivers.

Thanks.

[Bernard_McLean]

Did a little more research...created a new BEDIAG.FAX. From that I pulled the following:

0002:0001:0006:0001 Device Name ""
Secondary Name "\\.\Changer0"
Primary Inquiry "DELL PV-124T 0026"
Serial Number ""
Device Flags SCSI
Device State 1, Offline, ERROR = 0x0000007B (ERROR_INVALID_NAME)

That last bit looks important. Where can I check on that error message?

Something else...the Dell PV124T is not listed in the SCSIChanger key in the Server Registry.

Is that an issue?

Thanks in advance...

[Sharvari_Deshmu]

Hello,

Please follow the steps below:


1. In Devices tab, disable and then delete any device that is currently being detected by Backup Exec
2. Close Backup Exec and set the Backup Exec services to Manual startup type
3. Power down the autoloader (if internal standalone, disregard this step)
4. Power down the server
5. Power up the autoloader (if internal standalone, disregard this step) and give the autoloader sufficient time to fully initialize
6. Power up the server
7. Give the server sufficient time to load drivers (about 30 seconds after log on), and start the Backup Exec services, starting with the Backup Exec Agent Browser
8. Open Backup Exec. If the devices are detected correctly in the Devices tab, test the devices with an inventory, and test backup



Thanks,

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

[Bernard_McLean]

I completed the steps with no change.

Then I used the steps again and additionally removed the autoloader and tape drive from the Windows Device Manager and the Windows Removable Storage Manager. Powered down the device and unplugged it and rebooted the server. Server came up fine with no trace of any autoloader or tape drive.

Powered the server down again. Plugged in the autoloader, powered it up, waited for initialization to complete, then powered up the server. The server detected the autoloader and tape and installed Dell drivers. At this point the Windows Removable Storage Manager controlled the autoloader and tape drive and proceded to get a full inventory including barcodes from each of the loaded 16 tapes.

I unchecked the "Enabled" box for the autoloader/tape combo and then started BackupExec and ran the Device Configuration Wizard. The Wizard "sees" the tape drive fine and changes the drivers from Dell to Veritas. However it does not "see" the autoloader at all.

I would like to confirm that Veritas has a driver for the Dell PowerVault 124T.

Thanks for you help.

[Jeff_Dupere]

I would like to confirm that Veritas has a driver for the Dell PowerVault 124T.

Even if Veritas didn't care about supporting that autoloader in BackupExec, you can be sure that Dell would make sure it worked. A few things to look at. In the SCSI BIOS of the card the loader is attached to, make sure Multi-LUN support is enabled. There's a few other settings in there that could trip it up too, so if that is the only device on the card, consider resetting the card to defaults (in case you changed a setting for the other tape drive a long time ago), and then adjust any settings you know need to be changed (like transfer speed, etc). Updating the SCSI BIOS altogether might not be a bad idea either, especially if you're like me and only update things like that if there's a problem, or if the server is not currently in production. Good luck.

[Bernard_McLean]

The SCSI system seems to recognize both the tape drive and the autoloader. The Windows Management Console indicates that the tape is assigned LUN 0 and the autoloader is assigned LUN 1.

Windows sees the autoloader fine...I can even ask it to do an inventory through the Management Console.

The problem is that Veritas BackupExec never sees the autoloader. It installs a Veritas driver for the Tape Drive, but not for the autoloader.

[Kapono_Hohaia]

I having the same exact problem with my Dell PowerVault 124T. Both the drive and the medium changer are recognized by Windows.

Veritas drivers get installed for the Drive, but not for the autoloader. Is there any resolution to this problem. Is there a Veritas Driver for the autoloader?

Any ideas?

[Ben_Lentz]

I, too, am having this problem, but with Veritas 9.1. I am considering upgrading to 10 to get the compatiblity with our PV124T LTO-3 working, but not if you guys aren't having any luck on that platform...

As with the others, Veritas can see the LTO-3 drive, but not the library.

Maybe I should just change to sequential mode, but that seems like such a gigantic waste.

[Kapono_Hohaia]

Ben,

I finally got mine to work on my own. No one had an answer for my problem. I finally found a document through another document, etc. etc. and finally this one helped me find the problem
Document ID: 237047
http://support.veritas.com/docs/237047
How to resolve hardware communication issuses with Backup Exec. Step 4 led me to the SCSI LUN configuation, which indicated that I needed to enable BIOS MULITPLE LUN SUPPORT. I made that change in the SCSI Cards BIOS settings and then the device was finally able to be picked up by Veritas. The weird thing is that Windows could see both the drive and the Autoloader. I only wish that I had found this document earlier.

My specific device required LUN configuration. My SCSI CARD needed to have enabled BIOS MULTIPLE LUN SUPPORT. I enabled it to yes for all and I made some other changes which may or may have not needed to be enabled/disabled. I was working on the latest version of BackupExec 10d when I was having this problem. Dell recommends being on the latest version of Backup Exec.

I made this post really quickly. Because I don't have much time to elaborate. If you have any more questions. let me know. It's most likely the SCSI card settings. If you don't know those SCSI card setting can be accessed and change when the serverboots.

[Ben_Lentz]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check that out. The unit is connected to an Adaptec 39160 card. I haven't been able to verify the card's firmware settings because I've been working on the system remotely, but once I'm back in the office, I'll verify whether multiple LUN support is enabled on the card or not.

Oddly enough, I've found my own strange workaround for this problem.

Using Backup Exec 10d, I was able to coerce BE to see the autoloader drice only by installing in the "Do not use Veritas drivers, use Microsoft or OEM-supplied drivers only" mode.

Using Backup Exec 9.1, I was able to get it to work by installing in the same driver mode, and by using the system32\drivers\SCSICHNG.SYS, system32\drivers\QNMT3520.VSD, and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SCSIChanger\VSDLoadTable driver files and registry key from 10d. Strange, but true, it appears to be working. The success of this method can be determined by using Microsoft System Information and verifying that the SCSIChanger kernel device driver service successfully started on boot-up.

I'm sure that either of these methods are probably frowned upon by the folks at Symantec nonetheless, however, I thought I'd provide them in case someone else has this problem with the 124T and needs some additional troubleshooting steps.

I'll check out the multiple LUN setting, if that works, it would be a much cleaner solution.

[Bernard_McLean]

I found the solution on another of these "PV124T" problem threads (http://forums.symantec.com/discussions/thread.jspa?messageID=4391335Ƨ)...update to version 10d.

The update immediately fixed the problem. If I had known that the update was free, I would have done it back in February when I first posted my question, not after 4 months of time and at least 40 hours of troubleshooting.

I think that the real problem was that 10.0.5484 included the Dell PV124T autoloader in the Hardware Compatability List, but it was not present in the VSDLoadTable entry in the registry (details here: http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/255501.htm).

It may have been that a simple edit could have placed it there, but not knowing what (if any) BackupExec driver should have been used precluded that solution. My simple, direct question (what driver should the Dell PV124T autoloader use) was never answered by a Veritas/Symantic employee.

That gripe aside, my complete backups are running great (so far), with greatly reduced time (from 24hrs to 6) and fewer tapes required (from 10 to 1).

[Oliver_Portinga]

HI Ben,

Thanks so much for that information its saved me alot of stress. We cannot upgrade to the latest version of backupexec due to the way the DLO option works in the new version - i.e badly!

I dont think I would have ever found your solution out by myself and theres no way on Gods green earth veritas would have suggested it.

Once again thanks.

Oliver.

[13yearsexperien]

I had the same problem - Dell Powervault PV-124T LTO3 autoloader with 16 slots running from a DELL PowerEdge 1550 server via the internal SCSI adaptec 39160 card.

I noticed that windows could "see" both devices and that they were on the same SCSI ID (hence using different LUN numbers) but veritas 10d (new last year) only saw the tape drive, not the autoloader robot.

What fixed it for me was downloading the latest veritas drivers (TAPEINST.EXE) and a couple of reboots and runs of the Device Wizard. Veritas BackupExec (now Symantec) saw the device and inventoried all the slots and it works fine.

Of course the very day we decided to implement the new drive was the same day a developer decided to trash 6 databases and required them restoring from backup (the old LTO-1 tapes). Fortunately the PV124 could read the old tapes and I was able to restore them. One bug bear though - it took 32 minutes to inventory 16 slots. That's abysmal by any reasonable definition.

Message Edited by 13yearsexperience on 05-11-200708:21 PM