HP C7401A - SureStore Ultrium 230 Tape Drive, Getting Started Manual

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to be connected to the internet for this.
• Run tests: allows you to run proactive tests on your drive, such as the drive assessment test,
which will verify the functionality of your drive in around 20 minutes. HP recommends
running this test before calling HP Support. You will need to provide a ‘trusted’ cartridge that
can be written to during this test.
• Generate a support ticket: this is a full dump of the drive logs along with interpretation and
is used by HP Support to learn about the condition of your drive. Most useful is the device
analysis section which is the output from approximately 20 rules forming a comprehensive
analysis of the health of your drive. These rules may give advice such as cleaning the head
or trying a different tape if issues are found. The support ticket can be sent to HP Support
for further analysis.
• Run the performance tests: the tests to measure the write/read performance of your tape
drive and the data generation rates of your disk subsystem are also integrated into Library
& Tape Tools. Use these tests to find the performance bottleneck in your system.
Performance Assessment Tools
For maximum performance your disk sub-system needs to be able to supply data at 80 MB/
second (uncompressed) for Ultrium 960 drives, 30 MB/second (uncompressed) for Ultrium
460 drives and 15 MB/second (uncompressed) for Ultrium 230 drives.
You can use our free, standalone performance assessment tools to check tape performance
and test whether your disk subsystem can supply data at the maximum transfer rate.
The tools are located online at
www.hp.com/support/pat
along with a complete guide
to understanding the performance needs of your backup system and recommendations on
finding and fixing performance issues. In nearly all cases when performance is not as
expected, it is the data rates of the disk subsystem that cause the bottleneck. Please follow the
guide and try the tools before calling HP Support.
Note that the performance tools are also integrated into HP Library & Tape Tools, which is
available both online (
www.hp.com/support/tapetools
) and on the CD-ROM
supplied with your tape drive.
ult960_master_internal.fm Page 34 Tuesday, September 21, 2004 4:13 PM