Exabyte Hardware Error

[Mang]

We have an Exabyte Magnum 1x7 LTO Autloloader hooked to an Xserve via an LSILogic Ultra320.

 

After a week of good nightly backups, I removed the tapes, put 7 new ones in, restarted the Xserve and now I cannot get the device manager to actually manage the library:

 

Retrospect version 6.1.131

launched at 3/26/2007 12:33 PM

Retrospect Driver Update, version 6.1.9.102

Libary for "Exabyte Library, SCSI-A:0:0" reported a hardware failure while moving tapes.

 

This happens every time I try to manually load a tape and also when my automated backup kicks in. As it stands, retro is waiting for me to "select a tape" and "proceed" I cannot.

 

here is a screen of my device library - http://www.daake.com/retroMonday.gif

 

Note how it says it is empty - when I try to manually drag a tape, it acts like it is going to do something and just stops.

 

thanks

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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We have an Exabyte Magnum 1x7 LTO Autloloader hooked to an Xserve via an LSILogic Ultra320.

 

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You say that you have restarted the Xserve, but you don't say whether you have power cycled the Exabyte drive and autoloader. Have you?

 

That said, FYI we were never able to get the Apple BTO SCSI card (rebranded LSI Logic Ultra230, a/k/a LSI Logic 22320) to work in our Xserve G5 with Retrospect. That card is junk. Both EMC and Tolis Group (BRU) say that the only supported cards with Mac OS 10.4.x and Xserve are the ATTO cards. We replaced our LSI Logic 22320 that came with our Xserve G5 with an ATTO UL4D and all the problems went away with our Exabyte drive and autoloader, and our LSI Logic 22320 gathers dust on the shelf. Good riddance.

 

You don't say which Xserve you have, but you note that you are running Retrospect 6.1.131, which makes me suspect you have an Intel Xserve. The appropriate card for that Xserve would be the ATTO UL5D or the UL5D Low Profile. See:

ATTO SCSI HBA cards

 

Russ

[Mang]

This is excellent information. Is there any official response from EMC regarding the 22320?

 

The Xserve is indeed an Intel, and I will most likely heed your advice and purchase a UL5D

 

thanks

[rhwalker]

Yes, but the information was never updated to report a result:

Retrospect Mac OS X SCSI HBA Compatibility

 

Quote:

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Note:

EMC Dantz has received reports from users experiencing problems using the Apple branded LSI SCSI Card with tape devices. EMC Dantz is investigating these reports.

 

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I don't work for EMC and I can't speak for them; I just offer our experience.

 

As I noted above, I think you may need the "Low Profile" version of the UL5D in the Intel Xserve.

 

Russ

[Mang]

Just a quick followup...

 

Not wanting to scrap my LSI card just yet, I decided to call Tandberg/Exabyte. We opened up the Exabyte Magnum 1x7, pulled the drive out of the back and viola, there was a tape label stuck in the drive.

 

Doh