HP LTO Ultrium tape drives technical reference manual
volume 2 software integration
LTO 4 FC, SCSI and SAS drives
HP restricted
 Legal and notice information
 2 Configuration and initialization
Contents
1 Designing backup applications
3 Use of tapes
 5 Supporting Ultrium features
4 Factors affecting performance
 6 Sense keys and codes
7 Exception handling
 HP restricted
 Documents specific to HP Ultrium drives
Related documents
Documentation map
Drives-general
 Cartridges
Installation and configuration
Operation
Interface
 Maintenance and troubleshooting
Dealing with errors
 LTO Ultrium features
General documents and standardization
 Optimizing performance
1 Designing backup applications
Non-immediate commands
Large data transfer size
 Information in Cartridge Memory
Cleaning tape heads
Managing the use of tapes
Monitoring tape use
 TapeAlert
Design goals for LTO backup applications
Diagnostic logs
Displaying drive information
 Include the capability to download firmware
 Operating system drivers
2 Configuration and initialization
Inquiry string recovery
 SCSI protocol, regardless of transport or interface type
Example
16 Configuration and initialization
 Supporting additional LUNs
Support for additional LUN
Enabling additional LUN support
 18 Configuration and initialization
 3 Use of tapes
Using Cartridge Memory attributes
Using MODE SENSE
LTO cartridge memory
 Interpreting Log Sense data
Tape status and capacity
Finding the remaining capacity
 CDB fields
Using the SET CAPACITY command
Command descriptor block
 How WORM media works
Changes to SCSI commands
WORM media
New additional sense codes and TapeAlert flags
 SET CAPACITY command
Error Usage page
ERASE commands rejected
Re-writing media labels
 Unique media identifier
Using CM to check tape integrity
Behavior with a missing or inconsistent EOD value
 Barcode support
Responding to Cartridge Memory data
Load count
 RWW retry counts
Corrective action
 Detecting the drive’s speed
4 Factors affecting performance
Ways of optimizing performance
Ensuring the recommended minimum transfer sizes
 Time-out values
Using Cartridge Memory instead of tape headers
Using the Performance Log page for diagnosing problems
Media type identification
 Host-related factors
Recommended support of log pages
Factors affecting performance
 where possible or a reasonably sized RAID system. More disks means
Example
Recommendation
makes sense to split heavily used FC cards across separate PCI busses
 Drive-related factors
Do not interleave write commands with other commands, such as  READ
 Format-related factors
Page
 34 Factors affecting performance
 Automation interface
5 Supporting Ultrium features
Cartridge Memory LTO-CM
Further information
 Automation/Device Interface ADI
 Slave to a library controller
Automation Control Interface ACI
Modes of usage through ACI
 SCSI pass-through mode
ACI command set
ACI commands that affect drive streaming performance
 New features in ACI
Backward compatibility
 SCSI command
 Encryption support
 Recommended ACI time-out values
Further details
Supporting the ACI protocol
42 Supporting Ultrium features
 Recommended power-up sequence
Treatment of reserved fields
 Recommended load-unload configuration
 ACI protocol communications retry
Firmware upgrade via tape
Recommended Get Drive Status polling frequency
Upgrading the drive firmware
 Library firmware upgrade via tape
Firmware upgrade via the primary host interface
Firmware upgrade via ACI
Handling irregular cartridges
 Non-HP Ultrium 1 cleaning cartridge
Cleaning cartridge HP-configured or Universal
Expired cleaning cartridge HP-configured or Universal
Unreadable data cartridge
 Cartridge fails to seat or load
Valid firmware upgrade cartridge
Data cartridge with unreadable CM
Cartridge cannot be loaded
 Invalid firmware upgrade cartridge
Frequently asked questions
Cleaning
Is there separate firmware for drives intended to go into libraries?
 Resetting via the ACI Reset command
Backup software
Resetting drives
Resetting using the ACIRSTL line
 Other mode page information
Accessing Cartridge Memory without threading the tape
Controlling data compression
Buffer size at EW-EOM
 Partition size
Rewind on reset
Write delay time
52 Supporting Ultrium features
 Action
6 Sense keys and codes
Sense keys-actions to take
Console Message
 log the error, terminate I/O to the drive, and pass the appropriate
“3h-MEDIUM ERROR” on page 62 . Also see the Media Access
For additional sense codes, see   “3h-MEDIUM  ERROR” on
error to the calling application
 Action
Action
Console Message
Console Message
 Console Message
 End-of-Tape
Additional sense codes-actions to take
Physical
reached, unable to fit
 0h-NO SENSE
 1h-RECOVERED ERROR
2h-NOT READY
 The command cannot be executed because the specified
The software must issue a  LOAD before media access
LUN not accessible, port in
60 Sense keys and codes
 mechanism tests are being executed. When the tests are
 62 Sense keys and codes
3h-MEDIUM ERROR
A READ , SPACE , WRITE  or WRITE FILEMARKS  command
 Send a console message that an unrecovered error on
and the drive. Based on this, ask the user to clean the
 64 Sense keys and codes
 Send a message to the console indicating that there is
 The current command such as  READ,  SPACE,  REWIND
66 Sense keys and codes
 4h-HW ERROR
 68 Sense keys and codes
5h-ILLEGAL REQUEST
A  MODE SELECT parameter list sent to the drive contains
 allowed to execute. In other words, some commands can
6h-UNIT ATTENTION
persistent reservation using the  PERSISTENT RESERVE OUT
32 initiators to register, using  PERSISTENT RESERVE OUT
 Action
 WRITE BUFFER or MAINTENANCE OUT command
service action removed all reservations and the persistent
A PERSISTENT RESERVE OUT command was executed
A SET DEVICE IDENTIFIER command has been successful
 7h-DATA PROTECTION
 Action
 8h-BLANK CHECK
 related to a missing EOD data set. The most likely cause
Bh-ABORTED COMMAND
READ BUFFER command
 76 Sense keys and codes
Dh-VOLUME OVERFLOW
A  WRITE or  WRITE FILEMARKS command has encountered
 3. Allow the user to try recovery
Typical escalation procedure
1. Retrieve fault information
4. Allow the user to reset devices
 Monitoring the condition of the drive and media
Supporting TapeAlert
 Flags
Type
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 Designing software to use the TapeAlert log
TapeAlert models
 TapeAlert informational exception usage model
Reading the TapeAlert log
TapeAlert polling usage model
 Supporting OBDR
One-Button Disaster Recovery OBDR
Responding to the ‘Clean’ LED
 Providing pass-through mode
Requirements for drivers and logical device managers
 Glossary
 see ”read-while-write”
 Index
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