IBM LTO4/5/6 - When Drive is Replaced With ADI Mode Set, There is No FC Connection

Asset ID:	1-72-1988283.1
Update Date:	2017-05-19
Keywords:

Solution Type Problem Resolution Sure

Solution 1988283.1 : IBM LTO4/5/6 - When Drive is Replaced With ADI Mode Set, There is No FC Connection

Applies to:

IBM LTO5 Tape Drive - Version All Versions and later
IBM LTO6 Tape Drive - Version All Versions and later
IBM LTO4 Tape Drive - Version All Versions and later
Sun StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System - Version All Versions and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

We have seen an issue with IBM LTO drives in ADI mode without the Belisarius card in the mix. This issue occurs when a drive is replaced with one from spares. When the FE receives the drive it is in LDI mode and they have to flip dip switch number 5 on the bottom of the drive to on for ADI mode. For some reason in this situation the drive will not get the FC ports enabled.

Problem has been seen with SL8500 firmware 8.35 and 8.36.

Symptoms

Library error state, multiple tape drives showing problems.
No FC (Fibre Channel) Connection. FC ports not enabled.
Drive in appears to have a bad optic, it will not connect to the SAN fabric.

As soon as a customer has the Belisarius card bypassed and then go into ADI mode for STA, they will be susceptible to this issue.

Changes

A IBM LTO tape drive has been replaced due to various type faults.

Cause

Appears to be a library firmware issue on how LDI and ADI are handled when replacing defective drives.

Solution

The workaround is to take the drive out of the library and pull off of the tray and flip dip switch number 5 to off to force the drive in LDI. Then the drive should be powered up on the bench and connected to a magma box, if available, to verify that the drive can
connect over the FC ports. The drive should be powered down and the dip switch number 5 should be flipped back to the on position to force ADI mode. The drive should be placed back onto the tray and put back into the library.

This workaround has worked at 3 different sites so far that have seen this issue.

Note: This would only occur with IBM LTO3 drives, IBM LTO4 non encrypted without a Belisarius card, IBM LTO5 and LTO6 drives with the Belisarius card bypassed. We are also about to release the IBM LTO 5 and LTO6 drive trays that don’t have the Belisarius card by default so we will be open for this issue with those drives as well.

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