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Re: VXA-2 packet-loader issues and AMANDA [Fwd: hard luck with the new autoloader]
2005-02-04 09:54:04
I specifically pointed out to the Exabyte tech support that I thought the Linux tools
provided with the tape drive were Intel-specific and because I had an Alpha, it would
not execute properly. I knew this because I had already tried to use them prior to
calling Exabyte. I already had the latest firmware upgrades and tools ready as I was
going to do this anyway. But, before I had tried it, I already had a call into Exabyte
tech support to see if it was really necessary to upgrade the firmware in my case.
This was 2-3 phone calls into their tech support. They finally returned my call and
by this time I had already made significant progress.
I agree that I should insist on getting a version of their utilities that will run on
this Alpha/LInux machine. When talking with the tech support, he actually read
the system requirements back to me as we looked at them together on the web
and he pointed out it just says "linux 2.4.x" and does NOT specify particular arch.
Indeed, the same tools are available in other OS besides Windows and Linux, so it
should be fairly easy for them to recompile or provide the source so I can compile
for my Alpha. I will make this request because I should not have to uncable and
boot up an Intel machine specifically for this purpose.
When you say "cabling" issues, does this include a separate scsi card specific for the
tape drive ? I think my cable connections are good.
The scsi card I have is a "LSI Logic / Symbios Logic (formerly NCR) 53c875 (rev 04)"
All devices are indicating on boot up (dmesg) at 40 MB/s except the CD-Rom which
is indicating 10 MB/s. I have 3 hard drives, 2 tape drives (including the new one
having trouble), and 1 CD-Rom in this scsi chain. I have tried all three scsi drivers
available for this card in the linux kernel 1) ncr53c8xx, 2) sym53c8xx, and 3) sym53c8xx-2.
The ncr53c8xx driver seems to give the least problems, so I have concentrated on
this one. As I said, the "library" (autoloader) seems to work correctly, but it
is just the tape writing that is giving me problems at present. It is able to label the tapes,
but not write a larger data set to the tape.
On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 23:17 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
On Thursday 03 February 2005 17:49, James D. Freels wrote:
>No. It should be still Alpha compatible. The problem is that the
>firmware upgrade utilities
>for Linux are binary-only so I cannot compile them for the alpha nor
> run them on the alpha.
Are you saying its not a case of dd if=inputfile of=tape-device? They
may have it wrapped up in something thats intel specific, but I'd
almost bet a cold one that this intel specific loader does exactly
that, particularly if its an admin program that has to be pointed at
the file to be used for the upgrade itself.
That doesn't mean you should jump right up and do it, but I'd sure be
an inquisitive fly on the wall :) Talking to those folks like you
might know what to do will often get the info even if they don't want
to confirm it.
Otherwise, I think if they insist on its being a wintel box that does
the upgrade, I think I'd be a bit pushy about haveing them send
someone out with the correct gear to do the upgrade if you don't have
suitable gear on site, and definitely do it for nothing. It should
have been uptodate when it was shipped IMO. I mean most changers are
well above the 2000 dollar bill priceing range, some 10 to 20 times
that price. For that you can reasonably expect it to work, or they
should be very co-operative about remedying the situation since the
loss of the sale isn't exactly pocket change to either of you. Use
that leverage, politely, but use it.
>On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 16:19 -0500, Eric Siegerman wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 03:03:22PM -0500, James D. Freels wrote:
>> > Here is what [drive vendor's Tech Support said] is needed:
>> >
>> > 1) need a separate scsi chain; they said I already have too many
>> > scsi devices on this chain to make it reliable.
>>
>> See recent threads re. SCSI cables, bus lengths, etc. (Recent ==
>> last month or two).
>>
>> > 2) need to upgrade the firmware in the autoloader to the latest
>> > version; this may not work on an alpha machine and more likely
>> > will only work from an Intel machine
>>
>> I sure hope you mean only that the upgrade process might need an
>> Intel box. If that's the case, doing the firmware upgrades is
>> the cheapest and probably easiest thing to try, even if you do
>> have to do some temporary recabling (well, as long as you have an
>> Intel box with a SCSI adapter...)
>>
>> If on the other hand you mean that, once upgraded, the unit might
>> be less Alpha-compatible than it was before ... send the #&!*~
>> thing back for a refund! :-)
And thats your leverage. There are more or less accepted protocols to
running one of these things, and if in their haste to make it a
proprietary device so they have a locked in customer, they have
seriously broken the protocols, you shouldn't want it anyway. What
happens when you need to make a bare metal recovery and don't have,
anyplace but on one of the tapes, a copy of the required
protocol/access routines & the support contract has expired? Thats
not a scenario I'd want to find myself in, uh uh, no way Jose etc...
>> --
>>
>> | | /\
>> |
>> |-_|/ > Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont. erics AT telepres DOT com
>> |
>> | | /
>>
>> The animal that coils in a circle is the serpent; that's why so
>> many cults and myths of the serpent exist, because it's hard to
>> represent the return of the sun by the coiling of a hippopotamus.
>> - Umberto Eco, "Foucault's Pendulum"
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