Erasing FUP Tapes

When a firmware upgrade (FUP) tape is no longer needed, you can erase it and reuse it as a data cartridge.

Use this operation only when you need to reuse a FUP tape as a data cartridge. It is not necessary to erase a FUP before updating it with new tape drive firmware. Do not perform this operation to erase a date cartridge. This operation will fail if you attempt to erase a data cartridge.

The tape drive and affected partition will automatically be taken offline during the operation and brought back online when the operation is completed. You will be asked to confirm that you want to take the tape drive and partition offline.

NOTE: If your library has zero import/export (I/E) station slots configured, you cannot perform this operation. See About I/E Station Slots for more information.

Users with administrative privileges can erase FUP tapes, but users with user privileges cannot.

The following procedure requires you to have access to both the remote Web client and the local operator panel. If you need to perform this procedure remotely, you must first insert the FUP tape that you want to erase into the library's topmost I/E station slot before performing this procedure from a remote location.

  1. From the Tools menu, select Drive Operations.

    The Tools - Drive Operations screen appears.

  2. Select Erase a firmware tape with a specific drive and click Next.

    The Erase Firmware Tape screen appears.

  3. Using the Web client, do one of the following:
  4. Using the Web client, select the interface type of the FUP tape you want to erase and click Next.

    The Erase Firmware Tape screen appears. This screen lists the available tape drives. You can select only empty tape drives to perform this operation. If the tape drive you want to use contains a tape cartridge, you will need to unload it first. The Status column on the screen indicates whether the tape drive is empty or full. For more information on unloading a tape drive, see Unloading Tape Drives.

  5. Using the Web client, select the tape drive that you want to use to erase the FUP tape and click Next.
  6. The Erase Firmware Tape screen appears.

    NOTE: If there is more than one page of tape drives, use the Page 1 of x arrows to view the additional tape drives.

    NOTE: Bold column headings in the table can be sorted. For example, selecting the Location column heading will sort by location coordinates.

  7. Do one of the following:
  8. Using the Web client, click Apply on the Erase Firmware Tape screen.

The Progress Window appears. The Progress Window contains information on the action, elapsed time, and status of the requested operation. Erasing a FUP tape takes approximately 3 minutes. Do one of the following:

See also: