L5500 with LTO3 and networker

[TekAndy]

OK guys, I've got an L5500 with LTO3s that is having some issues. Three out of ten drives are consistently failing. the error message looks like this:

error message: Expected volume `07N089' in slot `11'. The actual volume is `<NULL>'
(the sn and slot numbers change, but the error doesn't)

Is this just a networker problem? We have replaced the drives, but the error remains the same. DO we need to do a long-init to re-construct the VOLSER library? Are these just bad barcode labels?

Any suggestions?

Andy

 

[STKman]

Hello Andy,

Are you sure the errors happen when the media is mounted on the LTO drives? Volume barcode verification occurs twice. The first time is when the camera goes to the slot where the cartridge is stored, and the external label is read. The second is when the cartridge is mounted on the drive, and the electronic version of the label is read from tape. At what stage is it failing?

Doing a long-init will set up the vision system on the L5500, but the libbrary has nothing to do with the barcode database. That is all done externally by ACSLS.

I would get your customer to log into ACSLS and pull of the event log at (I think):
/export/home/ACSSS/log/acsss_event.log

the info you get there should confirm if the correct carts are being mounted on the LTO's.

When a failure occurs the customer can use the query drive command to see what barcode is actually on the drive.

 

[TekAndy]

Hey STKman, The failures are occuring when the tape is loaded into the drive. It loads, then posts the error and ejects the tape. I know the vloser database is in ACSLS, but doesn't it retrieve the label info from the library after an init? The vision system has to tell ACSLS what is in the silo. It has me stumped. The replacement drives are even failing in the same manner, but only in the three slots. All of the LTO3s were verified to have the same firmware, so that isn't an issue.

Andy

 

[STKman]

Andy,

The 5500/9310's don't hold any cartridge audit information at all. The smaller ones like the L700 do becuase they they are industry standard media changers. The design of the 5500/9310/4410 is proprietary and needs HSC or ACSLS to keep the audit database. The audit is run at installation time and as required afterwards.

If it were me I would down one of the suspect drives from Networker, then log into ACSLS and manaully mount 07N089 (a known failing cartridge) onto the downed drive. If it stays loaded and requires you to dismount it again from ACSLS, then the ACSLS / L5500 subsystem is working OK. The problem is between ACSLS and Networker.

Try this and let me know how it goes.