TL2000 with new dell LTo drive from 114x

Question

So we purchased a brand new external dell drive. Removed the lto drive and installed it into a tl2000 sled. It will go to ready ready but then gives the HE: drive logged out code FB 01. It stays “busy” for another cycle (not allowing you to do anything) and then it gives you the idle after the second cycle where you can reset the library, go to default and/or upload firmware.

I used itdt to upgrade the firmware on the drive to the compatible listed one of h9e3 and then the tape library to e.70/3.20e. Both are listed as the versions necessary to support lto8. But the drive still shows the previous lto drive version and won’t come up.

I’ve swapped the old drive in another sled in and it comes up fine in a couple minutes and works. I’ve put the lto8 into the 114x and connected it up
And it works fine and shows up fine to the os as well. It actually shows up fine through itdt even while in the changer. Just the changer won’t recognie the drive. Can’t do a tape dump as the library unloads it but I can do a tape dump from the ibm GUI utility.

Any ideas or help as it appears the library is fine, and drives are fine. Thanks for any assistance/help

DELL-Sam L · Accepted Answer

Hello edfang,

In most cases that has worked on older LTO drives & sleds. I know that with LTO7 & LTO8 drives you have to purchase the upgrade kit for the TL2000/ TL4000.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

The drive from the 114x is setup as a standalone drive so the VPD settings are not correct to work inside a library, the only thing you can try is turning Dip switch 5 on and see if that works, but i doubt it will.

edfang · Answer

Gotcha. Did not know external standalone drives could not be used internally. Figured the control cable was present on both. Thanks. Guess I’ll have to go get an internal one.

edfang · Answer

Hmm. But there are all sorts of threads on here that you can change the drive type (as long as it’s a dell or ibm drive) and just flash the firmware and it will pick up the new drive (or reset the tape library). Is that no longer the case and sleds are tied to drive type ?

I guess I ordered the wrong part. Figured since I had the drive sled, could save my self a little bit and get a free 114x enclosure over ordering the internal drive only.

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello edfang,

The issue is the drive sled that you are using. The drive sled has a serial# that your TL2000 reads that tells it which version of LTO drive it is. You can change the drive & use the same drive sled for the same version of LTO drive that was previously connect to the sled. When you upgrade, your tape drive you will get a new sled so that it will be seen by your TL2000.

Now since you stated that you used an LTO8 drive from a PV114x, that drive will not work in your TL2000 since it doesn’t have a drive sled.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

tapelibraryfixer · Answer

im sure you can do it with older drive's but they may have made it harder to do by now. i have put an LTO3 into a LTO4 sled for example, but im sure i had to change the drives internal settings aswell. they dont want to make it easy for you

SimonJL · Answer

Hi Sam,

I'm glad I found this thread!

I have exactly the same problem having been supplied with the wrong parts but since we are in a remote location I am trying to get the replacement LTO5 external drive to work. I have 5 of them as future spares so it would be nice to get them to work with the drive sled that's now free since it's drive failed a week ago! We are also using a TL2000.

With my problem I am swapping a LTO5 drive for another LTO5 drive, albeit one has an updated IBM part number (39U3432 compared to 39U3434) which I assume to be just a revised version of the original since it was manufactured more recently and they are both LTO Ultrium 5-H drives, so I would have thought that the drive sled serial number issue you mentioned would not be a problem. I have updated both the drive and the library to the latest available from Dell support.

When mounting the new drive into the sled I noticed that sled uses a different connector port on the drive for the 'service' cable. it makes use of the 10 pin connector farthest away from the SAS connector whereas the external drive case uses the 9 pin connector immediately to the side of it. What is the service port for (the one with the spanner) and can it be used. What's the difference between the 2?

Any help to explain this or advise on what else to try would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Simon

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello Simon,

The connector that is to the far right of the sas port on your drive is the Library connector port. That has cable needs to be connected to the drives so that the drive can talk to the library.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

t3hinternet · Answer

I have a TL2000 with 2x LTO5 drives.

If I upgrade to LTO7 for one drive, where do I find the "TL2000 Upgrade Kit" which this threads says is required?

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Also, with the TL2000, can I have one drive LTO5, the other LTO7, then SAS cables to two different backup servers, one using LTO5 and the other using LTO7?

Thanks.

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello t3hinternet,

The upgrade kit comes with your LTO7 drive when you purchase the drive from Dell. The upgrade kit has the drive sled that will be seen correctly by your TL2000. You can also have 2 drives in your TL2000 and can have each drive going to its own host. You will need partition the library to make sure that each host has access to the correct media.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

PowerVault

TL2000 with new dell LTo drive from 114x

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