When browsing around the internet, we have come across many questions asked about the StorageTek SL500award winning modular tape library, the StorageTek SL500. We’d be happy to answer some of those StorageTek SL500 questions for you guys in this week’s posting.

Q: One question was regarding the StorageTek SL500 robotic arm. Apparently every time the user would power on their library, the SL500 robotic arm would stay in the down position at the bottom of the library. The service robot and service required LED lights would then illuminate.

A: This could be a matter of a foreign object jamming the robotic picker assembly, but the problem is most likely the robotic picker assembly itself. The way the StorageTek SL500 tape library works, is it uses a series of internal barcodes which the robotic picker assembly uses to determine its location. Chances are the barcode scanner has stopped working and needs to be replaced.

Q: A company had recently bought a refurbished StorageTek SL500 tape library, and was trying to connect to it with no avail. They simply stated they can’t connect to their StorageTek SL500 library. They searched the internet for a default user name and password, but did not have any luck finding this.

A: The reason they could not find a default user name and password is because the StorageTek SL500 tape library does not have a default password. Each library is a unique machine, and therefore the admin password is generated when the SL500 is first activated by typing in the activation code.

Only after that can the password be changed. If you lose the password, the only way to gain access is to reset the StorageTek SL500 to factory default. However, doing this requires that you get a new activation code.

So basically in a nut shell, if you have a StorageTek SL500 tape library, and you don’t know the admin password, you either have to go back to the seller that you purchased it from, or you must wipe the activation and then re activate it. However to do that, you will need to contact Oracle/Sun/StorageTek and deal with them.

So the moral of the story, is don’t lose your password for you StorageTek SL500, or you might be in for a large headache trying to get it up and running again.

Q: How to configure the cleaning tapes for your StorageTek SL500 tape library? The user was running NB 7.5.0.3 on 2008 R2. They had just upgraded their original LTO3 drives to LTO4 drives, and were now using HP LTO4 drives in their SL500.

They had taken over the library from another company who left out the cleaning regimen. The user bought new cleaning tapes, added them to the SL500 library, and then assigned them to the appropriate volume pool.

After resetting the drives and configuring them to run cleaning every 48 hours, the user then decided that he wanted to run at least one manual clean first to test out the process. When attempting the manual clean, the library was showing a “96 error” (Media Not Available) After this the user was unsure of their original cleaning configuration.

A: To avoid this error, the media that you are using for cleaning must match the density of the SL500 drive. After this is complete, you must make sure that the tapes are placed into the “NONE” volume pool, and they must have less than more than 0 cleaning remaining.

Manual cleaning is usually not recommended as the drives should not be cleaned until the drive itself prompts the user saying that it needs a cleaning.

The reason for this is that the cleaning tapes for the StorageTek SL500 are fairly abrasive and will definitely wear down the LTO4 drive heads every time they are used. After changing to HCART-CLN and NONE pool, the cleaning process worked.

Here at InStock, our StorageTek trained technicians are always available to answer any and all questions like these about the StorageTek SL500 every day on the phone. InStock will never turn down a customer asking for technical support on any equipment that is sold or repaired by us. Visit our StorageTek SL500 page for more information, or give us a call today!

(877) 786-2533

https://www.instockinc.com/StorageTek-SL500