Compaq TL891 system and ARCserve

[Dougwl]

Hi guys, first off i've found the information here really helpfull. Second, I've just got a Compaq TL891 system all hooked together, 1 expansion module, 2 data modules, and 3 tape modules. I've got all the robotics working and all that good stuff. I have not yet hooked it up to my backup server. It is running Win2k Server, all serviced packed out, and Arcserve 2000 AE all serivcepacked out and also has the tape library option installed. What i'm after is any helpful tips, notes, cheet sheets, etc. that may make this a bit easier for me to acomplish. Once i get it going i will be setting up a grandfather/father/son rotation on it, which i have no idea where to start there :}

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks in advanced

Doug

 

[montanablue2]

You're in for a lot of pain if you have the same luck I did in trying to get one of those system setups to run (I have a couple of compaq TL891DLX's connected to Arcserve 2000 Advanced with W2K) The two tape libraries I have had have broken down about a total of 8 or 9 times in the last year. And Arcserve is no fun to work with either. Here's some things I would do:

1.) Make sure the firmware on the libraries is upgraded to version 5.25. You will probably have problems otherwise.
2.) Check to see what kind of SCSI controller cards you are running. I have been told by Arcserve that the 64 bit Compaq controller cards have a bug in them that hinders communication with the library. The 32-bit cards are better..
4.) Check your backups religiously every day and scan through every detail. If you see a red mark, investigate it... This has saved my butt...
5.) Pray and go to church every week....

 

[Nauthiz]

We have one of these at a client site that backs up servers on a compaq storage works SAN. It is a huge pain the **** as if any of the four NT servers which are clients of the tape library are rebooted without stopping all four sets of tape engines in the correct order first, all the backups off the library will fail until fixed up again.

It is rare we get a week where all the backups work on the tape library!

 

[TheLad]

I would use Fibre rather than SCSI to connect a tape library. Has always worked better for me, less problems. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[ScottF]

Good Luck using this configuration. I have had numerous problems with this same configuration. Watch your System event log for errors and make sure you are using the latest drivers from Compaq. Use SmartStart 5.20 or greater when configuring the server and also use Compaq's HBA for DLT libraries part number 157299-b21. The older driver for this card would report SCSI parity errors in the system event log and then the library would not work. A reboot of the server would correct the problem but it would eventually happen again.

Good Luck with Arcserve2000.

If you are backing up any NetWare servers you have to have the NetWare agent installed. Without the agent installed Arcserve2000 will let you back the NetWare system up and report that everything was successful but you can not restore the data.

 

[ARCserveGuru]

Latest drivers for Compaq?

Don't tell me your loading the NT drivers Scott?

Doug, don't load the NT drivers. Other than that I don't see a problem with your configuration. It starts to get a little tricky when installing other agents and options. But other than that there shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure the SCSI cards or whatever your using is on the Certified Device List.

Guru

 

[ScottF]

Guru

What drivers are you suppose to use to recognize your SCSI adapter?

W2K recognized the SCSI card and loaded its driver for the adapter, however Compaq recommends loading the latest set of drivers for their hardware from the SmartStart CD's. What driver do you recommend?

I am interested any recommendations that you can make.

Scott

 

[ARCserveGuru]

oh sorry scott, I thought you meant you were loading drivers for the compaq TL891 tape library. The SCSI card requires drivers to be loaded. The library and drives do not. The reasons are that ARCserve will talk straight to the firmware of the drivers and will have sole control over the drive. More efficient I believe.

this is why the drivers for the drive and library can't be loaded. Two apps (win 2000 and ARC 2000) will both try to talk to the library and as such may cause a SCSI bus conflict.

This is what I was trying to warn you against

guru

 

[montanablue2]

As an update to my previous post, disregard the 32-bit controllers suggestion, turns out I was given bad information there...

 

[stretakis]

We are having a similar problem with the TL891, Arcserve 7.0 and the 64-bit controller cards. Did CA provide you with an incident number? I've been working with both CA and Compaq and they haven't heard of this issue. If you can provide me with any info, it would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to give CA as much info as possible so they can research this issue in their database.