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galjj
Contributor
Contributor
‎07-09-2013 07:57 AM

esxi 4.1 and tape library

Hi all,

i have upgraded esx3.5 to esxi4.1u3 on some blade hosts connected with FC to a Tape library TS3200.

After upgrade whenever i restart a host immediateli i see the media changer device but not the two tape device. i have instead some dead path. I tryed more rescan with no result.

After a few hours ( usually it need one nigth ) the two tape devices appears and are fully functional for VM that have the scsidevice connected to them.

With esx3.5 i didn't have this problem after host restart the three devices (media changer and two tapes) was available.

Do yuou have any idea for this strange behaviour? Is there, at least, a possible workaround to force a deep rescan like that it seem is executed overnigth when tapes appears.

Many thanks

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jbWiseMo
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
‎08-16-2013 05:15 AM

I have a slightly similar issue with a tape drive connected to ESXi 4.1, though mine is SAS and with no media changer robot.

If I boot up the host and tape-using VM with no tape loaded in the drive, the Guest OS in the VM fails to detect the tape drive as present, even if a tape is inserted.  To clear the condition I have had to reboot with a tape inserted.  Due to short service windows I have not had the opportunity to test if the problem goes away after a few hours of running in the tape-missing state, as by then the service window would have ended and there might be no recovery until the next service window.

But it would be interesting to hear if your problem goes away if you load a tape (any tape, though probably not a cleaning tape) into each drive before booting the host.

Also my affected Guest VM happens to use a recent Linux kernel to access the tape drive, is it the same for you?

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