Very Computer

Hello AIXers,

We're having problems talking to two Magstar 3590 DLT tape
drives over Fibre Channel.  Our config is such:

RS6000 (SP node, AIX v4.3.2, Emulex lp8000 HBA)--fibre-->
Brocade Silkworm Fibre switch--fibre-->
Crossroads Fibre/SCSI bridge gateway--scsi-->
IBM Magstar 3590 DLT tape drives

We've finally been able to make the rmt0 and rmt1
tape devices in AIX with the mkdev command, but any
tapeutil, tctl, etc commands on those drives fail with
"connection timed out" immediately.

Is there anything on the AIX side we should do, or
does anyone have any suggestions or war stories regarding
the Emulex card, the Silkworm switch, the Crossroads
bridge, or the 3590 tapes?  Any idea where the
break in communication is happening?

Any help is very appreciated, thanks.  -Jay

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

First I would have to ask if you verified this is a valid
config?  I thought you had to the IBM SAN Data
Gateway (I think OEMed from Vixel) to get those drives
to talk FC.

Have you installed all the correct device drivers?

--
Joshua S. Bassi
Senior Technical Consultant
IBM Certified Specialist - AIX Support
Tivoli Certified Consultant - TSM 3.7
Symatrix Technology, Inc.
jbassi at gloryworks dot com

Quote:> Hello AIXers,

> We're having problems talking to two Magstar 3590 DLT tape
> drives over Fibre Channel.  Our config is such:

> RS6000 (SP node, AIX v4.3.2, Emulex lp8000 HBA)--fibre-->
> Brocade Silkworm Fibre switch--fibre-->
> Crossroads Fibre/SCSI bridge gateway--scsi-->
> IBM Magstar 3590 DLT tape drives

> We've finally been able to make the rmt0 and rmt1
> tape devices in AIX with the mkdev command, but any
> tapeutil, tctl, etc commands on those drives fail with
> "connection timed out" immediately.

> Is there anything on the AIX side we should do, or
> does anyone have any suggestions or war stories regarding
> the Emulex card, the Silkworm switch, the Crossroads
> bridge, or the 3590 tapes?  Any idea where the
> break in communication is happening?

> Any help is very appreciated, thanks.  -Jay

> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

Word is that if you're going to use Fibre Channel you want to be at
4.3.3 because the 4.3.2 FC drivers aren't that
reliable...

C. DeVille