StorageTek SL8500, User Manual

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Firmware Upgrades with RE
Redundant Electronics Overview D-3
Factors that Prevent an RE Switch
■
The standby library or drive controller is in a fault or eject state.
■
The standby code is not running on the standby library or drive controller cards.
■
A firmware download or card initialization is in progress.
Factors that Initiate and Automatic Failover
An automatic failover can be initiated by either the active or standby library controller.
The active library controller initiates an automatic failover when:
■
Its partner drive controller card is not installed or it is not communicating.
■
It detects a catastrophic internal software error.
The standby library controller initiates an automatic failover if the active controller is
not functioning normally.
Ways to Initiate a Manual Failover
Before initiating a manual switch, you should verify that the standby library and drive
controllers are running normally. You can initiate a manual switch using:
■
Host tape management (ACSLS or ELS) — Failover can be initiated from either
the active or standby library controller. The standby library controller accepts only
set host path group
and
force switchover
HLI requests.
■
SLC — Failover is initiated from the active library controller only (see "Initiating a
Manual RE Switch Using SLC" on page 14-7).
■
CLI — An Oracle support representative can initiate failover from either the active
or standby library controller.
You may want to perform a manual switch after initial installation of the standby
cards, after a firmware upgrade, or periodically to check that the failover function is
working properly. It is not possible to manually switch the library controllers without
the drive controllers — the controllers are always switched as a pair.
Firmware Upgrades with RE
Firmware upgrades for RE libraries are minimally disruptive to library operations. The
library loads and unpacks new code simultaneously on the active and standby
controller cards and on all devices. Then the library activates code and re-initiallizes
the controllers and most devices. Under most circumstances, the library bypasses
robot initialization.
The loading, unpacking, and activation of code does not disrupt library operations
until the library reboots. During the reboot process (which takes approximately 10
minutes), the host applications (ACSLS and ELS) queue all mount and dismount
requests. After the reboot is complete, the queued requests are submitted to the library
controller.
See "Upgrading Library Firmware" on page G-1 for firmware download and activation
information.