Sun L700 2

[samurai123]

Hi,

I heard a statement about this library which is whenever you replace any component other than tape drives you have to flash the firmware.

I don't see the firmware flash as a requirement in the manual.
Does anyone know if it's a requirement and if yes, why is that?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TekAndy]

No, m,ost parts can be replaced without "flashing" the firmware. You might be able to get a pn compat listing off of the SUN site.

 

[samurai123]

Thank you Andy for the fast response. I do appreciate it.

Do you know what parts replacement requires firmware flashing?

I have one more question about tape drives firmware upgrade.
I understand that each drive has to be upgraded individually using some firmware update tape. Is this the only way?
How can I make the FU tapes for IBM, Quantum make drives?

I tried to look for a compatibility matrix of library firmware and tape drives firmware but no avail.

Thanks again.

 

[STKman]

Samurai123,

Every single part in an L700 can be replaced without the need to flash library firmware. However, as the library firmware resides in the controller card (called the MPC), then replacing this card may result in an upgrade or downgrade the library firmware. This can be bad if the firmware goes down, as tape drives may no longer work.

You can make a FU tape for an IBM LTO if you have another IBM LTO in the library. They have a built in utility to do this using the unload button.

Quantum have a free s/w utility to flash DLT's over the host bus, and it also makes FU tapes. However, do NOT use any DLT code you find on the web to flash L700 DLT's or they will stop working. You need a special STK flavour of the code for library operation.

 

[samurai123]

Thank you STKman. That's exactly I was anticipating about flashing firmware if needed after replacing the MPC.

Do you know where I can get the compatibility matrix for Library firmware and tape drives?

That's great piece of information about creating IBM LTO FU tape. I didn't know that. I will see if I can find an IBM utility in case I don't have another LTO drive to copy from.

I do agree that you have to have L700 library compatible firmware for the tape drives. I know Sun offers the drive firmware in the form of a patch for L700. However one needs to use a utility to upload the firmware to the drive. One of the ways I know is using dd with a known block-size.

Do you know the ways to create FU tapes on these drives and know they work?

Thanks again.

 

[STKman]

If you have customer access to SunSolve then you might find some compatibility information there. Unfortunately I don't. StorageTek were always very secretive about that sort of info. However, here is some basic info I collected:

For LTO4 support (HP) 3.15
For LTO3 support (IBM & SG) 3.09
For T10K support (STK) 3.09
For LTO3 support (HP) 3.08
For SDLT600 support (Qua) 3.08
For LTO2 support (HP) 3.05
For LTO2 support (IBM) 3.04

HP used to market the L700 as the 20/700. Do a Google search for "HP 20/700 bundle" and you will get L700 + drive code to download. Its very old now, but still some use if you have DLT7000 or DLT8000's. I wouldn't touch the rest - its too old. HP say their MPC code is 3.95, which must be a mistake as even Sun maintained machines are nowhere near that high.

Sun use in-house utilities to flash drives, or PTI SCSI-Toolbox which is available but very expensive. Your problem is not s/w utilities but getting code at a decent level. Authorised repair shops will have the code but cannot sell it to you. Do a web search for such businesses in your locality. Some will "refurbish" your drives (or MPC cards)for a reasonable fee, which includes flashing to the latest level.

Hope all this helps,
STKman.

 

[samurai123]

Yes, it does help. Thanks a lot STKman!