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Robot not recognized

sabby
Level 4
Certified

We have a master server with NBU 6.0 MP7 (master is acting as media server only). A few days back it got rebooted unexpectedly and after it came up the OS wasn't able to recognize the robot i.e. "IBM 03584L32 SCSI Changer Device" and the four drives i.e. "IBM ULT3580-TD4 SCSI Sequential Device" as seen from the device management console (refer attachment).

We have rebooted the server twice once before the reboot of the tape library and once after the reboot of the library and it is still the same. We also checked the hardware status of the device and found no faults.

NOTE: Another team is using the same library for running the backup jobs and didnt report any issues so we can consider the tape library is running fine.

It looks like the NBU software cannot see/connect to the tape library drives.

Please suggest.

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Marianne
Moderator
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scan seen the robot, not the tape drives.
The robot can see the tape drives in the robot, but the drives are not responding to scsi commands so,  no device paths and vendor info (similar to robot info) is returned for the tape drives.
Scan output should look similar to this (with robot and drive info):  https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/issue-tape-drive-dell-powervault-132t-windows-server-...

The OS is still not talking to the drives correctly - normally a driver issue.

Which drivers have you installed? Hopefully not Windows drivers?
Best to install vendor drivers.

Is Removable Storage Manager service stopped and disabled?

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15 REPLIES 15

Marianne
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The yellow question marks says that the OS does not have drivers for the devices.

You need to select each device and install drivers.

You need to find out why OS is losing drivers - not NBU issue.

PS:
Are you aware of the fact that NBU 6.x ran out of support in Oct 2012?

sabby
Level 4
Certified

Marianne,

I have installed the robot and the tape drives drivers, now the OS is able to recognize them (refer attachment).However, when I open the NBU Admin Console, the drives section in the activity monitor still shows the tape drives down.

I have restarted the master server and the NBU services after that but still no luck.

When I am running robtest, its reading the robot  but when I am giving "s d" (show drives), then its giving an error(refer attachment).

I have experienced this issue for the first time. Is there something I am missing after installing the drivers except restarting the server and the NBU services? Also, is the problem now from the NBU end? since the OS is able to recognize the robot and tape drives.

Yes, I am aware that Symantec has withdrawn support for 6.X, we will soon be upgrading it to 7.5 after this issue gets resolved.

sksujeet
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

What is the scan command shows as output. Please provide us the output of Scan command.

Also the changer is showing from IBM and better to make it unknown medium changer ( default one by MS).Have you rebooted the box after updating the drivers. Sometimes on windows it is better to reboot after upgrading the drivers.

Robtest is directly sending the scsi commands to Robot and if it not working something wrong on the hardware side.

sabby
Level 4
Certified

@sazz

Refer the snap for the scan command. I again rebooted the server, now I am able to run the "s d" command in robtest but again unable to bring the drive up.

sksujeet
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Go into the device monitor and manually up the drives. Right click on the drive and make it up. Most of the time you have to manually up the drive once they are down. Are you getting any error message while making the drive up?

sabby
Level 4
Certified

Yes, I have tried to make the drive up (Check the 2nd snapshot in my above post).

I am getting error: "The drive is not ready or inoperable"

Marianne
Moderator
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scan seen the robot, not the tape drives.
The robot can see the tape drives in the robot, but the drives are not responding to scsi commands so,  no device paths and vendor info (similar to robot info) is returned for the tape drives.
Scan output should look similar to this (with robot and drive info):  https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/issue-tape-drive-dell-powervault-132t-windows-server-...

The OS is still not talking to the drives correctly - normally a driver issue.

Which drivers have you installed? Hopefully not Windows drivers?
Best to install vendor drivers.

Is Removable Storage Manager service stopped and disabled?

Yasuhisa_Ishika
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

I assume you are using 32bit Windows Server 2003. What driver you have reinstalled?

If you have installed tape drive driver released by IBM, remove it and try Symantec's driver. Be sure to select PnP driver in installer.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH51096

sabby
Level 4
Certified

The changer's driver provider is showing "unknown" only if I check the driver tab of the properties window (refer attachement). But why should it be unknown rather than IBM. Isnt it best to install IBM drivers as from the Marianne's suggestion below?

Marianne
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'Unknown medium changer' is 100% fine. That is the default Windows driver.

Your current problem is not with the robot - you can see that scan can see it fine.

Your current problem is with the tape drives - not seen/reported by scan. This points to a driver problem (on tape drives, not robot).

Please see recommendations below.

Marianne
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sabby
Level 4
Certified

The issue has been solved now. I have installed the IBM driver of whose setup information file I am atttaching in this post in .doc format. However when I am seeing the properties window of the tape drive and the medium changer i.e. robot, though I am able to see the version and provider of the tape drive but not able to see the version and the provider of the robot i.e IBM (refer attachment).

The backup jobs are running fine now but need to know is it good to continue as such since the robot driver provider and version is still unknown to the server?

Yasuhisa_Ishika
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

NetBackup on Windows directly control robots without tape library drivers. If you have no problem, it will be OK.  but if i were you i would remove tape library driver from Windows.

sabby
Level 4
Certified

Thanks all for helping this out!

Marianne
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As per my post over here - Unknown Medium changer is perfectly fine and is recommended by Symantec.

Your problem was with the tape drives.