Tape drive firmware

[Doug_Klein_2]

How sensitive is NB 5.1 to different firmware versions? We just added 4 LTO2 drives to an IBM ATL and 3 have newer firmware.

Thanks.

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

NetBackup is not sensitive with firmware versions in initial configuration. But newer firmware may be better.
Someone knows what happen in replacing drive of different serial number, different firmware? Global device database contains these information.

[Richard_Bannist]

having drives with different firmware revisions is not good. Always make sure to to keep firmware in step and up to date

[Stumpr2]

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I am not impressed with how VERITAS deals with microcode changes. I have had to reboot mail servers due to firmware upgrade s on IBM LTO II's

[Doug_Klein_2]

A call to IBM has been placed.

[G_S]

Definitely keep all the drives at the same level. One other thing to note if you're running a Windows server is that the f/w is stored as part of the drive identifier string (ie IBM ULTRIUM2 42D1) when you upgrade f/w it changes that string and Windows tends to not like that until you do a reboot.

[Richard_Bannist]

Our Windows guys use a small Sun tape robot attached to their Intel master server, and the ONLY way to upgrade the firmware on their drives is to unhook the robot, then hook a Sun box up to the robot and flash the firmware that way. Bizarre and extreme but it works!