Meridian Mail card or HD may have died AGAIN 1

[jdlrez]

Having just replaced the (rather expensive) HD in my mermail system a couple of months ago, I fear it may be fried again.

A rather massive power outage last night took out most of this zip code. Power was restored shortly after. My PBX booted up fine and phones are working, however the mermail extension (601 in this case) rolls over to our receptionist when dialed.

Like last time, the green light on the mermail card is slowly blinking off, then on, and trying to access the menu by typing AX at the console, returns nothing. It just sits at the prompt until you hit ctrl ]

My question is, from the console, is there any way to properly shut things down BEFORE I flick the switch to power off the card?

I haven't touched anything so far.
I Do have a current backup tape in the drive, and I seem to recall reading something last time about how mermail won't boot with the tape in?

I can take the tape out and power cycle, I just don't want to flick that switch until I've done all I can to shut down properly.

Advice?

 

[acewarlock]

Just flip the switch.

 

[telecomnorth]

1) remove tape
2) power cycle Meridian Mail
3) Make sure the AML link is enabled and in "auto" state.
(LD 48: enl aml X acms)

 

[jdlrez]

Thanks for the info.

I pulled the tape, flipped the switch, waited 30 seconds, powered up.

The green light is solid now (better news than last time i guess) However:

.stat aml
AML: 09 ESDI: 09
LYR2: DISABLED LYR7: DOWN DSBL

enl aml 9 acms
.
CSA001 9 9:02:40 1/02/2007 4
stat aml
AML: 09 ESDI: 09
LYR2: DISABLED LYR7: DOWN DSBL

.enl aml 9 lyr7
AML001 009

.stat aml
AML: 09 ESDI: 09
LYR2: DISABLED LYR7: DOWN DSBL
-------

I have tried every combination I can think of.
enl aml 9
enl aml 9 acms
enl aml 9 lyr7
enl aml 9 lyr2
enl aml 9 fdl
-------

I have not re-seated the card yet. I can try this if it's advisable?

 

[telecomnorth]

You can try disabling the aml link then enl aml X acms.

What does does AML001 stand for...

Yes, go ahead and reseat the Meridian Mail cards. If the PBX sees the AML link as "not responding" you may have to power down the PBX and reseat SSC card.

MerMail does take it's time rebooting. About 10 to 15 minutes.

 

[jdlrez]

dis (or disu? tried both) then enl aml did nothing.

Powered the mermail card off again, popped it, re-seated, powered up. So far, no green light at all...

Gonna wait 5 or 10 I guess and then power down the PBX and re-seat, if the light doesn't come on.

 

[jdlrez]

as a note: right now (still no light) stat aml gives

AML: 09 ESDI: 09
LYR2: AUTO SETUP LYR7: DOWN DSBL AUTO SETUP

 

[jdlrez]

The light finally came on on the mermail card but it's back
to doing the slow blink... not sure what else to do but power off the pbx. I dont have a specific pwr supply or breaker so my only option is to flick the Off switch on the pbx itself.

Unless there's another way. Power in this building is pretty screwed up in general as far as the layout.

 

[telecomnorth]

With your last post it looks like the AML is enabled and in the "auto" state. In this state reseating the PBX SSC card likely is not required. The state and on/off sequence of the green MerMail light does change during the boot process. Can you hear the "hardrive at work sound" when MerMail is booting?

 

[jdlrez]

Yes, I hear what sounds like a pc booting up, sort of a fan type noise which I guess could be the HD spinning.

 

[telecomnorth]

Usually you can hear MerMail reading the Hardrive. The sound is similar to older PC reading it's hardrive. Also once MerMail is power up enter the AX command on the PBX - and wait. At a certain point you should be able to see the MerMail boot process on the screen.

 

[jdlrez]

Thanks for your continued help.

It's rather loud in the server room where the pbx is.
Currently the AX command is just sitting at the prompt.

I don't hear anything coming from the mermail HD, none of the usual "grinding" sound of a reading hard disk.

It's been about 10 minutes.

 

[jdlrez]

Almost forgot: it's probably worth mentioning that the first time I powered down/up the mermail, (before reseating the 2nd time) the screen spat out the usual info regarding warm start, etc. This time there was nothing on screen...

 

[acewarlock]

I have an Option 11C with CP and sometimes I have to reboot the Option 11C more than twice, before it comes up.

 

[jdlrez]

My phone guru up north advised me not to power off the pbx but rather to try an INT, so far it hasn't done anything to help the mermail situation.

Gonna wait a while before resetting the card one more time.

 

[hawks]

Is the Light Flashing, and is the Tape in or out?

 

[jdlrez]

Light is flashing slowly, tape is out.

 

[pbxn]

When I had mer mail in my option 11, and had power issues, I would unplug the tape drive cable from the switch altogether. Seemed to have saved some time.

 

[jdlrez]

I just noticed after powering mermail down and re-seating,
there is a "daughter" card with female pin connectors that seems to 'bridge' the 3 cards together, it wasn't seated all the way down. Am doing my best to get all 3 slots fully seated but it's a little troublesome.

going to get that in properly and power up again, see where we stand.

 

[pbxn]

Its easier to seat the cards first than the cover, imo.