A customer calls in with a Hard Error on an L9. The error message can be found on the Front Panel of the L9 itself and there may be a red light on the front of the L9. The message can be see by going through:

Main Menu ->Information ->Loader Information

Within this window are a few further windows that you can read the error logs in. These options are Loader Status, Hard Error Log, Recovered (Soft) Error Log, Odometer and Identity. From Loader Status we should see the Partial Availability message that this document details. The message says that a firmware upgrade is needed.

The first item to check is the firmware on the library. On the Front Panel go through the Main Menu ->Information ->Firmware Revisions. This window should show you the revisions of the firmware for the tape drive and the loader that are currently loaded on the L9. You can find the current releases of the firmware online through sunsolve.sun.com. If the firmware is down revisions on either the loader or the tape drive then upgrade. To upgrade the firmware on the tape drive you need a FUP tape. Load the FUP tape into the drive and go through the front panel on the L9 to upgrade the firmware. The path through the Front Panel for tape drive firmware upgrade is: Main Menu ->Administration -> Upgrade Drive Firmware

To upgrade the firmware on the autoloader we have to go through the web interface to access the L9. First we download the firmware from the web. This can be done by going to SunSolve and downloading the latest revision of patch 112141. Apply this patch to the server on this network. Once the patch is installed the firmware files should be present. Upgrading the autoloader firmware via web interface is done by going through Configuration ->Firmware Download. The firmware download window will come up and you will need to enter the patch all the way down to the firmware file on the server. Start the Download and Grant Java Security. You may be prompted for the Admin password. Give the password and the firmware download will start after a warning message appears stating that the library will automatically reboot once the download is complete. Once the L9 reboots itself you can refresh the page through the web browser and the new firmware will be present. The Front Panel will also show the new firmware.

If the firmware is already at the latest revision then there is another component in the L9 that has firmware, which is not reported on the Front Panel of the L9. This is the Remote Management Card (RMC). To check the firmware on the Remote Management Card it has to be set up for web access. The main cause of this problem which I have seen is that the customer will be running the Hewlett Packard version of the firmware on the RMC instead of the Sun version of the firmware. This is generally caused by the fact that currently Sun does not sell an RMC for the L9. This may change soon. For customers to obtain the RMC for their L9 they have to purchase through a third party vendor. The third party vendors are purchasing the RMC directly from HP and most likely the card is coming loaded with HP firmware.

One method of recognizing if the L9 has HP firmware on it is obvious when you go through the web access to the library. To bring up the web interface for the L9 you need to have an IP set on the L9 and you may need the browser to be set to direct connection to the internet. Type in the IP address for the L9 into the line for the URL in the browser. This should connect us to the L9 and the main window should come up showing us a picture L9. When you bring up the web interface for the L9 the first way we can see that there is either HP or Sun firmware on the L9 is the logo. If HP firmware is loaded then there will be an HP logo with HP colors present. If the Sun version of the firmware is loaded then the Sun logo will be present and the Sun colors are apparent.

If the L9 is NOT connected to the web then the first question to ask is why do they have the RMC card in the library since it's function is to connect to the web. Working around this issue there method to fix the red light on the front of the L9 and have it come back green, with a little smiley face on the Front Panel. The RMC card will have to be deconfigured. To do this the L9 should be powered down, then the RMC card can be removed. When the L9 is powered back up it will complain about the RMC card not being present and the red light will still be lit. On the Front Panel go through:

Main Menu ->Administration ->Change Configuration ->Network Access

In this window the library will notice that the RMC is missing and you will have the option to remove it from the configuration. Once this is done the unit should come back with a green light on the front and a little smiley face on the front panel.

Many of these procedures can be found in the Service Manual for the L9. There are internal links to the documentation which can be found by going through the Sun System Handbook, select the L9 and click on Related Documentation. There are useful documents available for download in .pdf format.