L180 Target error with two new(refurb) LTO2 drives

[jsauls]

Greetings,

We have a total of 5 LTO2 drives in our L180. Two drives had to be replaced for failure to release tapes. We had a service tech replace the two drives with refurbished drives. After rebooting the L180 we get errors with the two replaced drives. FSC 3e1b when running a drive check. The status of the drives gives a target error when trying to place a tape in the drive.

The media server can see the correct drives, I have replaced them in the tpconfig. I can see them in sgscan as well.

Robtest sees the drives but gives an error of:
Sense code = 0x40, Code qualifier = 0x2
when running scan drives.

and an error of:
Initiating MOVE_MEDIUM from address 1007 to 504
move_medium failed
sense key = 0x4, asc = 0x40, ascq = 0x2, UNKNOWN ERROR, KEY: 0x04, ASC: 0x40, ASCQ: 0x02
When trying to move a tape.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[TekAndy]

It seems the drives you recieved do not have the correct personality. What I mean is, they may have been stand alone drives or out of some other manufacturers library. The error you gave says.... DRV cmd not supported: A command was issued to the drive that the drive does not support. Is the firmware the same as the rest of the drives? What is the make of the drives...IBM?

 

[jsauls]

I found out that the plate that contains the identity(barcode?) was not replaced on the new drives, so the L180 could not see where they were located.

That has been replaced...now one of the drives works, while the other has a cleaning tape stuck in it. It stinks working on hardware that is a few hundred miles away!

 

[TekAndy]

Ah yes, missing bezel. There is a target on the drive bezel that the robot hand has to find in order to load the cartridges. Are these IBM drives? Try to have someone power cycle the drive and see if that ejects the tape.

Andy

 

[jsauls]

They are IBM drives. I had a tech remove it manually and put it back in the reserved slot...looks like it either put it back in there or the robot still thinks that it is in that drive. I will try to power cycle tip.

 

[TekAndy]

If your library still thinks there is a tape loaded, but you know it is empty, take your hand and insert it palm up into the throat of the drive, and gently pull the shuttle out until it "clicks". This should clear up the problem. The IBM LTO drives are known for this problem, and eventually require a stiffer spring installed.

 

[jsauls]

Does this bad/weak spring also cause the drives to not be able to eject the tape completely?

I had this issue today and used your above solution and it worked in allowing the library to see that it was actually empty. But when it tried to load a tape it couldn't eject it properly.

Thanks