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Version 7.0.265 and IBM Ultrium 3584 LTO (urgent)


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Hello,

 

We have purchased Retrospect 7 multiserver upgrade from 6.5. According to the documentation IBM Ultrium with Fiber Channel is fully qualified. The tape library was working ok after the upgrade, but something in Windows goofed up and I moved to a different server - it was crashing every night. I have a clean installation of Retrospect 7 and Win2k, but now I cannot get Retrospect to work with the tape library anymore. I can see the devices and I can move tapes around the tape library slots, but cannot move anything into the tape drive. Also any toolbars beside properties are greyed out when selecting either one of the two drives.

 

Please help, thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

 

Can you post a screenshot of what you are seeing there?

Does the configure->devices->environment window show that both the library and the drive have a driver loaded?

Make sure to disable the Windows drivers for the backup device in device manager.

 

Thanks

nate

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Hello!

 

The Ultrium tape library has currently 2 drives and 140 LTO slots. Under 6.5, the environment window does not show the tape loader and drive as a separate device, and the only way to get it to work is to disable one of the 2 drives. Otherwise it seems to be confusing Tape drive no. 1 with tape drive no. 2 loader

 

I suppose the problem could be that this model does not propagate a separate device for the loader, but uses some kind of assignment via LUN, e.g. 6:0:0 for drive and 6:0:1 for loader.

 

The environment in 6.5 where the device is currently operating more or less ok so far, looks like:

 

6.0 (Ignored)

6:1 IBM ULT3580-TD2 3AP0 IBM ULTRIUM DC (1.42)

 

In the 7.0 environment things look different:

 

9:0:0 (Ignored)

9:0:1 (Ignored)

9:1:0 IBM ULT3580-TD2 3AP0 IBM Ultrium 2 DC (1.41)

9:1:1 IBM 03584L32 3480 IBM 3584 Library (1.07)

 

Interesting could be that 6.5 shows 1.42 firmware. I also tried to ignore 9:1 and enable 9:0 and both. But regardless off it I can see the tape library and drive in the device status, but cannot move a tape from a slot to the drive and vice versa. I use "NT Passthrough" and have the windows device drivers for the library and tape drive disabled. Also tried the setting in preferences to stop windows removable storage manager and experimented with using API and windows removable storage manager on and off, but than I don't see the library at all, only the drives.

 

Please help. It makes much sense for us to continue using Retrosect in particular with some of the new features, but it has to work.

 

P.S. I also experience the "unexpected termination due to power failure...." during automatic executions.

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Hi

 

Retrospect 6.5 didn't really support fiber channel so I'm suprised you could see the devices at all in the past.

 

You shouldn't have to ignore anything.

 

Do the lun and firmware version settings that Retrospect reports match the actual settings on the loader? What luns does the device say it is using? Have you tried changing the luns for each device?

 

Have you tried using ASPI instead? Do you have the latest firmware and drivers for the fiber channel card?

 

Thanks

Nate

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Hello,

 

the only scsi configuration I can see in web configuration page of the tape library is the scsi/loop section, which shows only ID 17 for drive 1 and 18 for drive 2. The loader does not have it's own scsi id. I cannot see any LUN's. The library is connected to a Fiber switch, which was configured by our EMC support guy (we have several EMC2's), including the driver supply for the fiber channel card.

 

I believe the ID that Retrospect sees is not coming from the device directly, but from what was assigned by the Fiber switch.

 

Yes, I tried ASPI, as mentionend in my previous post, but it would not show any library slots, although the media changers appear in the device manager.

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The Ultrium 3584 is connected through a fiber switch. It does not propagate it's own scsi ID for the loader. Perhaps something is wrong with the fiber switch configuration. If I remember correctly, some devices require to assign a path for the drive with LUN 0 and for the loader with LUN 1. Perhaps the path for the library was not configured. I will check back with our EMC support person to give this a thought. I will send an update asap.

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Hello,

 

I connected one of the drives to the server directly. This setup avoids any tape device driver conflicts or fiber switch port issues. The result is still the same. I can see the drive, import/export slots and tape library slots, but cannot move any tape into the drive. The drive cannot be selected. Moving tapes around in the library and import export slots works.

 

Finally I managed to find a setup that seems to work so far, at least in the above configuration. I changed the SCSI ID's of the tape library drive 1 and 2 from 17 to 1 and 18 to 2. I also enabled automatic LUN configuration in the Emulex administration tool.

 

I still think something in missing or wrong in the driver files for version 7 as it device stopped working compared to 6.5.

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I have forgotten to mention, that although it's working the way it appears in the storage devices window is still wired. It looks like:

 

IBM Ultrium 2 DC Unloaded Fibre 5:0:0 (real id is 2)

- Empty

IBM 3584 Library 11:ready Fibre 5:0:1 (no real ID, LUN should be 1)

- IBM Ultrium 2 DC Fibre 5:1:0 (no real ID, LUN should be 0)

- - 2-Backup 3 [007]

Import Export slots 1- 10

Library Slots 1 - 20

Library Slots 21 - 40

etc.

 

The first IBM Ultrium 2 DC in the list is not working. the tape drive that appears as a subdevice of the Library works.

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The emulex bios sees the device with the correct ID and LUN. e.g. ID2 LUN 0 drive, LUN 1 library. In Retrospect however it appears as SCSI ID 5:0:0 and 5:0:1. I have another server which runs the previous 6.5 version and the library connected there shows as scsi ID 3 in the emulex config, but SCSI ID 11 in Retrospect. For Retrospect to see the library and tape drive, automatic LUN mapping needs to be turned on in the Emulex control settings.

 

Things are getting a bit confusing. I'm going to summarize it up a bit.

 

The tape library has 2 drives. When both drives are connected to a fiber switch, than Retrospect 6.5 apparently confused the drives. I was able to work-around it by disabling on of the drives in the Environment window. In version 7 I could not move any tapes from the library to the drives regardless of the Environment configuration. I had some success by re-assigning the tape drive ID's from 17 to 2 and 18 to 3, and connecting the tape directly. There are no SCSI ID settings for the library, it's simply LUN 1.

 

I was wondering if the retrospect driver get's confused with the shared library or control path of the drives. So I reconfigured the library today to have logicals libraries assigned to each drive. The result is that everything looks ok for the first tape drive, in version 6.5 and 7. However when I try to use the 2nd tape drive with another direct connection to another server I only see the tape drive and no library.

 

I'm running out of ideas and time.

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Actually I just did another test. I installed Retrospect 7 on another server that is directly connected via fiber to the 2nd drive of the tape library. It works.

 

It looks like this now: Retrospect 6.5 only works with the 1st drive, and only if the device is connected directly or scsi ID's of other drives are disabled.

 

Retrospect 7 only works if automatic LUN mapping is enabled on the emulex card, and only works with the 2nd drive provided the tape library has logicals libraries assigned to each tape drive - that's configured on the Ultrium 3584 itself. The retrospect driver does not show the real scsi ID's of the tapes drives and does not work if the tapes are configured with wide scsi ID's.

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