Can't Connect 4th Drive keeps logging off

Question

Hi

I originally purchased a Dell TL4000 with 3 HH5 Fiber Channel Drives and want to add a fourth Drive to be fully efficient with my backups. I installed the Drive in the 4th bay, after it connects to all the Drives I get an error code HE: drive logged out Code: FB 04 and it disables the 4th drive. Also the 4th drive is being read as a SCSI drive not FC on the library display like the others. All four drives are connected individually to Two Dual Fiber Channel PCI Express cards to our Backup Server running OS - Win Ser 2008 enterprise R2 64bit.

Dell TL 4000 with Firmware Version: D.70 / 3.20e

Library is set on in Random mode, and the logical library is set to 1

Drive Model is IBM Ultrium 3580-HH5 with Firmware Version 'G361'.

Drive 1 is set

Drive 1 (Logical Library 1)	Power On Control Path
Port A Configuration
Speed	Automatic 2 Gb/s 4 Gb/s 8 Gb/s
Topology	LN-Port L-Port N-Port
FC-AL Loop ID	Automatic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2A 2B 2C 2D 2E 2F 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5A 5B 5C 5D 5E 5F 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6A 6B 6C 6D 6E 6F 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7A 7B 7C 7D
Port B Configuration	Port not available

Drive 2 is set

Drive 2 (Logical Library 1)	Power On Control Path
Port A Configuration
Speed	Automatic 2 Gb/s 4 Gb/s 8 Gb/s
Topology	LN-Port L-Port N-Port
FC-AL Loop ID	Automatic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2A 2B 2C 2D 2E 2F 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5A 5B 5C 5D 5E 5F 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6A 6B 6C 6D 6E 6F 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7A 7B 7C 7D
Port B Configuration	Port not available

Drive 3 is set the same as Drive 2 but with a different Loop ID which is 6

I’ve removed the drive from the 3rd bay to test out the drive that we ordered. It wasn’t defective and it worked fine so the drive is not the issue. I even had our vendor create the same environment in his location and it came up with the same results. So it must be a library issue. I looked up the library manual online and reset the library to factory default, nothing got resolved, still have the same issue 4th bay keeps logging off the drive. I even swapped the fiber channel to see if it was a card issue and it wasn’t.

Also I noticed that the SCSI element addressing is not set to what it should be on slot 4. Shouldn’t it be set at 259? This is how it’s displaying on the library console.

4U Unit with FH and HH drives

(1 logical library)

SCSI Element Slot

258 4

258 3

257 2

256 1

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello Aipso302,

You stated that when you originally purchased YOUR TL4000 that you only had 3 drives and now you are trying to add a 4th drive it is not being seen. When you inserted the 4th drive into your TL4000 did you flash the Library Firmware? If you didn’t then I would do so as in order for the TL4000 to see all drives correctly it will grab the serial# from the drives when it does a firmware flash. If you have done a firmware flash for the library and the drive is still not showing then will need to gather a service dump log from your TL4000 so that we can see what other errors that your TL4000 is giving.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Aipso302 · Answer

Hi Sam

Thanks for the reply. I'm not certain when you say "firmware flash". Do you mean updating the firmware?

I can upgrade to the latest version Dell has out there which is A26 I'm currently running A24 now.

Please let me know?

Thanks

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

i have had this issue as well, when i downgraded the drive firmware to D2AD from G361 it worked ok.

you could try resetting the library to defaults and see if that re-configures the unit with 4 drives.

Aipso302 · Answer

Thanks for the reply I downgraded my library firmware to C.00 & drive's to D2AD then I restored back to factory setting still nothing. now I can see the 4 drive in the firmware page displayed as so:

Upgrade Drive 4 (LTO127 = readCookie('navigation'); if (cookieGo\PUBLICDIR\JS_FUNCTIONS.JS SCSI) Firmware

Upgrade Drive 4 (LTO127 ³° C; O SCSI) Firmware

Yea the element addressing is still showing as:

Drive 1: 256

Drive 2: 257

Drive 3: 258

Drive 4: 258

any other Ideas??

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

looking at the manual the only time a drive should have identical element addresses is when the library is partitioned, so your library based on your addressing looks like its got 2x HH drives and 1x full height drive, but restoring to defaults should clear any partitioning.

maybe creating 4 partitions will create 4x element addresses but its 1 magazine per drive.

is the new drive actually new or brand new second hand

Aipso302 · Answer

Hey thanks for the Reply

I have tried this in the past, partitioning the library to 4 logical drives, the element addressing does change to 256 on all drives as is mentioned in the Manual. But under the general tab my available active slots per drives is as shown:

Extended Configuration for Logical Libraries
Logical Library 1
Library Mode	Random Sequential Autoload Loop
Active Slots	2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Logical Library 2
Library Mode	Random Sequential Autoload Loop
Active Slots	2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Logical Library 3
Library Mode	Random Sequential Autoload Loop
Active Slots	2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Logical Library 4
Library Mode	Random Sequential Autoload Loop
Active Slots	2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

So the range of slots I have available per drive is up to 12, the rest of the 45 slots are not available.

Is there some kind of jumper on this chassis that will erase everything to a start fresh?

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

i would have thought reseting to defaults would have cleared virtually everything. it may be and issue with the new drive, the drives have internal settings as well maybe there not correct

Aipso302 · Answer

Hi Tapelibraryfixer

The drive isn't the issue I swapped it with one of our currently running drives and it works fine. I removed the drive from the 3rd bay and inserted the drive we ordered and runs as it should, and the drive that was running in the 3rd bay I inserted it on 4th bay of the library and won't recognize the drive as a FC but as a SCSI. So it looks like its the library chassis 4th bay is the issue, but the library is out of warranty. And Dell won't even repair it if I paid them. Do you know anybody that will be willing to help me out in the North East USA.

Thanks

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

Hi Sorry mate i don't, the company i work for is in San Diego, so for you along way to go

PowerVault

Can't Connect 4th Drive keeps logging off

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