Jump to content

Dell PowerVault 124T - Library not recognized


Recommended Posts

Hi

 

We are trying to use a Dell Powervault 124T LTO-3 Autoloader on a Mac G4/1250 Dual (10.4.8). the SCSI Card is a ATTO ExpressPCI UL3D. latest driver from the ATTO site installed.

 

Retrospect 6.1.126 Workgroup with Driver Update 6.1.9.102, Device Access Version 1.0.107

 

the actual drive and the library show up correctly in the Mac OS system profiler.

both appear and work when using other backup programm (like BRU LE).

 

in Retrospect via Configure / Devices, only the actual drive is visible, no library.

when going into Device Status I can see both: SCSI-A:3:0 IBM Ultrium-TD3 and SCSI-A:3:1 PV-124T

 

according to the support pages this Powervault 124T LTO-3 is supported since Driver Update 6.1.4.103, on a other support note this modell is listed as fully qualified for Mac.

 

hmm, why does the system see the library, why do other programms see the library (and use it), why do I see the library in SCSI device status.... but it's not listed as available storage devices.

 

I did now some backups by moving tapes manualy with the controls on the powervault, the writing and restoring works very well, very fast.. but where's the library inside retrospect? without it... useless.

 

any feedback/help would be great. thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:

in Retrospect via Configure / Devices, only the actual drive is visible, no library.

when going into Device Status I can see both: SCSI-A:3:0 IBM Ultrium-TD3 and SCSI-A:3:1 PV-124T

 


Are the drive and autoloader supposed to both be at SCSI ID 3?

 

also, I don't know what that "Device Access Version 1.0.107" is. Isn't that a remnant from some older version? I think that it's all in the RDU now.

 

Only other question would be whether there is anything else on this SCSI channel (A)? We had issues when Retrospect's tape drive and autoloader (Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u SCSI PacketLoader) was on the same SCSI channel of our ATTO UL4D as our RAID 1 mirror SCSI drive for the OS. That cleared up when we gave the tape drive and autoloader their own SCSI channel with nothing else on that channel. I suspect that Retrospect was causing some sort of a SCSI bus reset or something during device scan that was causing an interrupt to be dropped for the disk drive, caused occasional hangs. No problems since.

 

Make sure that you don't have any BRU remnants (or Tolis Tape Tools) still running, they might be preventing access to Retrospect's devices.

 

Russ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Russ

thanks for your answer.

 

both at scsi id 3? thats how they show up everywhere i can see this info. i'll have to check in the manuals that came with the powervault if this can be changed. we have other librarys in use (overland storage), there actually these things are not on the same scsi id.

 

device access version -> I found this together with the other version info in the "about retrospect" window, "status". on this machine we did a clean install of the OS and of the latest retrospect, so there's no old stuff or settings of previous versions around.

 

no other devices on the scsi channels.

 

i'll clean out the bru stuff, i did install it only after retrospect didnt work properly at the beginning, to see if there's perhaps something wrong with the library. but as i mentioned in the first message, with bru, everything works ok, so i guess the hardware is ok.

 

I'll have a look in the manuals tomorrow if there's a way to play around with the SCSI ID's on the powervault.

 

thanks

Jürg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is showing with the:

Quote:

when going into Device Status I can see both: SCSI-A:3:0 IBM Ultrium-TD3 and SCSI-A:3:1 PV-124T

 


is that they are both at SCSI ID 3, LUNs 0 and 1, on SCSI bus A. In other words, they are appearing as different logical units controlled by the same slave device at the end of the SCSI cable that is connected to the ATTO UL3D.

 

Retrospect should be able to handle this, but you never know....

Quote:

device access version -> I found this together with the other version info in the "about retrospect" window, "status". on this machine we did a clean install of the OS and of the latest retrospect, so there's no old stuff or settings of previous versions around.

 


Interesting. I've been using Retrospect since 1992 (version 2.x then) and I have never looked at the "about retrospect" menu item; I've always gotten the Retrospect version and RDU from the Retrospect log so I could copy it into posts and bug reports. I looked moments ago, and ours says "Device Access Version 1.0.107" too. Interesting that the "Device Access Version" is not printed in the Retrospect log.

 

You learn something new every day.

 

Russ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

A couple things to add here:

 

1. With the Atto UL3 card, you may want to verify in the System Profiler that you are running driver 3.2.1 and firmware 1.6.6f0.

 

2. Just to verify, in Device Status under the driver column, do you see a driver listed for the PV-124T? (probably not but just checking)

 

3. As you mentioned and I'm not sure if this is normal for the Dell PV-124T but usually the library and tape drives are on different SCSI ID's for modern loaders ie. SCSI-A:2:0 Ultrium-TD3 and SCSI-A:5:0 PV-124T.

Maybe verify with the System Profiler and the actual loader to see if they are on SCSI ID 3.

 

Hope this helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi

 

thanks for the details.

 

1. ATTO - driver 3.2.1 and fw 1.6.6f0 is what we have

2. driver shows 0.00 for the pv-124t. the actual tapedrive shows IBM Ultirum 3 DC (5.06)

3. i see the following:

SCSI-A:3:0 Ultirum-TD3 and SCSI-A:3:1 PV-124T

so they are on the same ID, but on different logical units.

in the setup of the dell box, i can not find any place to change the ID for just one of the two pieces, it just lets me change the ID for the whole box.

 

we have other libraries in use (Overland Powerloader SDLT) there we have Library and Drive on separate ID's and it works.

 

i am now also in touch with Retrospect Tech Support, hope to hear something from there as well.

 

thanks

Jürg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

hello again

little follow up to my story, still not working and i'm really getting angry about the tech support of EMCInsignia.

i paid the € 69.95 to be allowed to contact tech support.

on the receipt you get, there's a wrong phone number to contact european support. good start for a beautiful friendship, i thought. ok, found the correct phone number on their website.

called them to open the case, after being held on waiting for a long time (international call charges counting....) somebody answers, opens the case and wants to put you through to tech support. there you get a message that they are too busy and the line is cut. thanks a lot.

sent an email with screen prints, everything, documenting my case. got an answer within 24hours, fine i thought.

but the guy from tech support mixed up Logical Unit number and SCSI ID when looking at my screenprints, so his "solution" -> change the scsi id from 0 to something else didnt really help as this was the LUN 0 he was looking at...

since then, over two weeks now, i sent emails again asking about the status of the case. never got an answer.

tried to call again today, on hold for a long time again (... again international phone call charges ticking away..), reached one guy who looked at the case, wanted to put the through to tech support, message we are too busy, beep beep, line cut again.

 

thanks a lot, what did I pay € 70.-- for? so it seems currently i am not able to reach tech support although i paid for it.

 

this support is one hell of a mess.....

 

oh and back to the technical issues, we tested with another product, we are most likely going to switch to if retrospect doesnt work. the library works perfect, like with all the other tools we tried, except Retrospect that still doesnt work.

 

grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...