Troubleshooting Guide

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Dell™ PowerVault™ LTO-4-120 Tape Drive User's Guide

This chapter provides best-practice installation guidelines for getting the most out of your Dell PowerVault LTO-4-120 Half-Height tape drive, and troubleshooting information you can use to identify and resolve tape drive problems.

Installation Best Practices

Troubleshooting Suggestions

Installation Best Practices

Using a Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) Host Bus Adapter

To achieve the best performance from your serial-attached SCSI (SAS) PowerVault LTO-4-120 Half-Height tape drive and optimize your backup operations, attach the drive to a SAS Dell controller that supports 3 GBytes per sec. per port transfer rate.

HBA Preinstallation Checks

Before installing the HBA, check and record your current system configuration. For example:

In the . . . operating system,	You can find information on any currently installed SAS HBA by . . .

Windows	1.	Double-clickingAdministrative Tools in the Control Panel
	2.	Clicking Computer Management > Device Manager
	3.	Clicking the SCSI host adapters listed
	4.	Clicking Properties to view the Resources tab

Linux	Viewing the boot log text file.

See your operating system documentation for specific information on reviewing your system configuration.

After installing the SAS HBA, restart the system. Make sure the operating system recognizes the HBA and that there are no conflicts with other adapters.

Troubleshooting Suggestions

Computer Does Not Start

If the computer started and operated properly before installing a SAS HBA and the PowerVault LTO-4-120 Half-Height tape drive, but does not start now:

1.Remove the SAS HBA.

2.Restart the system.

3.If the system starts normally, there is a problem with the SAS HBA. Make sure the SAS HBA is compatible with the system and does not have burnt components.

4.If the system still does not start, contact Technical Support.

Computer Hardware Does Not Recognize the Tape Drive

If the computer starts normally but does not recognize the tape drive:

1. Restart the system and check whether the SAS controller is recognized at system startup. You should see messages similar to:

SCSI Adapter Manufacturer SCSI BOIS xxxxxxx

CHA: SCSI ID #, SCSI Device Name

SCSI ID #, SCSI Device Name

If the SAS controller is recognized during system startup, proceed to step 2 to determine whether the tape drive is recognized when the SAS controller scans for devices. Otherwise, contact Technical Support.

2. If the SAS controller is recognized during system startup, restart the system to determine whether the tape drive is recognized when the SAS controller