IBM LTO6 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO6 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO3 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO4 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO4 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO2 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO1 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO3 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO5 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO1 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO5 Tape Drive
 
HP LTO2 Tape Drive
 
IBM LTO7 Tape Drive
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>TAPE>Tape Hardware>SN-TP: OEM Drive and Library
 

In this Document

Goal

Solution

References

Applies to:

Goal

HP & IBM LTO - How To Upgrade Firmware on HP & IBM LTO Drives via FC Data Path Using Tload and WinTload Utilities

For the HP and IBM LTO drives customers can upgrade the firmware on their drives using the Oracle Tload and WinTload utilities.

For customers running Solaris and Linux they can use the Oracle Tload utility.

For customers running Windows they can use the Oracle WinTload utility.

Solution

The Oracle Tload and WinTload utilities are supplied in the latest Oracle Firmware Patch for the customer's drives. These patches are available for the customers to download on My Oracle Support (MOS).

Requirements

• The drive(s) to be updated will have to be data path connected to a host (media server) running either Linux, Solaris or Windows
• tload requires a 64 bit Linux or Solaris (SPARC or X86) host operating system, 32 bit is not supported
• Unix: The "st" or "sg" kernel device driver is required for tload to be able to communicate to the drive(s)
• The user has to know the “root” user credentials to run the tload program
• The firmware Patch has to be downloaded from MOS (via Patches & Updates) to the host
• The user has to either know the DMOD Tape drive serial number(s) or the corresponding "/dev" device file name(s) to make a proper selection
• The device(s) need to be offline to the backup application prior to the upgrade and no cartridge should reside in the tape drive(s) (empty)

To use the Oracle Tload utility to upgrade the firmware on your LTO drives on Solaris and Linux please follow the following process:

1. Unzip the patch you have download from MOS and copied to a working directory on your server. Example: # unzip 150062-01.zip
2. Untar the tload.tar file. Example: # tar -xf tload.tar
3. The PatchName/TLOAD_Dir directory will be created
4. Start the tload utility from the proper OS folder:
   - For Solaris x86 in the PatchName/TLOAD_Dir/x86 directory
   - For Solaris Sparc in the PatchName/TLOAD_Dir/sparc directory
   - For Linux in the PatchName/TLOAD_Dir/x86-linux directory
5. To list your available drives, just run the command: # ./tload
   
6. To update drive FW, run the "tload" command followed with the firmware file name:
   # ./tload ../../<firmware_filename>
   
   
   Note1: For HP LTO drives please use the firmware file with the ".E" file extension with Tload utility.
   Note2: For IBM LTO drive please use the firmware file with the .ro or the .fmr or .fmrz file extension with Tload utility
7. Ensure that the device to be upgraded is the correct one and answer "y" for yes. The default answer is No.
   
   
   
8. First it will download the code to the drive:
   
   
   
9. Then it will start writing the flash:
   
   
   
10. At this point you can exit from this view by choosing 0(zero) and it will tell you if the flash writing is still incomplete and will not prompt you until finished:
    
    
    
11. Once finished it will show you this. However, if you don't exit it might just keep saying writing flash for ever.
    
    
    
12. It's also good practice to check from the library management tool(SLConsole or BUI) that the drive is online after the FW upgrade.
    Notice: IBM LTO drive's have a known timing issue related to library discovery, and some cases the drive may show in error state in the library management tool after the FW upgrade, even all looks good from Tload and the drive is operational from the host perspective. This is purely related to a discovery timeout from the library side, and this can be solved by rebooting the drive(remotely or locally).

For more detailed instructions, see the PDF included in the patch file called: HP/IBM Tape Drive Firmware Upgrade Utilities.pdf

To install and use the Oracle WinTload utility to upgrade the firmware on Windows please follow the following process:

Note: Please run the WinTload utility as "Administrator" by right clicking on the program and selecting "Run as Administrator"

1. Install WinTload by double clicking on the WinTload_3_0_Installer.msi file
2. Start the WinTload tool by either double clicking on the desktop icon or by selecting WinTload under the Windows Program Files in Windows.
   
   
   
3. Select the tape drive that you want to upgrade by selecting the Device number for that specific tape drive.
   
   
   
4. Browse to the correct firmware file for the drive you want to upgrade and click on the "Open" button.
   Note1: For HP LTO drives please use the firmware file with the ".E" file extension with WinTload utility.
   Note2: For IBM LTO drive please use the firmware file with the .ro or the .fmr or .fmrz file extension with WinTload utility.
    
   
   
   
5. If a cartridge is in the drive the drive will eject it before starting the firmware upgrade.
6. The drive will start the firmware download process.
   
   
   
7. Once the download and upgrade are complete the drive will go through a recovery period.  The time remaining (in seconds) will be displayed down in the bottom border of the WinTload window.
8. When the recovery period is complete please click on the "OK" button to rescan the drives.
   
   
   
9. The drive should now reflect the new firmware version that was just upgraded on the drive.
   
   
   
10. If you need to upgrade other drives please follow the same process for each of those drives.
11. It's also good practice to check from the library management tool(SLConsole or BUI) that the drive is online after the FW upgrade.
    
    Notice: IBM LTO drive's have a known timing issue related to library discovery, and some cases the drive may show in error state in the library management tool after the FW upgrade, even all looks good from Tload and the drive is operational from the host perspective. This is purely related to a discovery timeout from the library side, and this can be solved by rebooting the drive(remotely or locally).

For more detailed instructions, see the PDF included in the patch file called: HP/IBM Tape Drive Firmware Upgrade Utilities.pdf

References

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