SAP Note 28089 - HP 48AL Autoloader supported as of 3.0E/2.2I

Symptom:

BRBACKUP cannot change the tape in HP Autoloader 48AL. The command "mt -t offline" does not change the tape. The tape remains in a so-called "semiloaded" status.

Cause and prerequisites

This device type has two driver address types:
Data driver address - that is called with cpio/dd and control driver address - that is called with the "mtx" command. Using the "mtx" command you can import/export a certain tape and call up the status,
among other things.
With HP-UX 10.xx, the "mtx" command is available on all HP platforms, but must first be installed in addition to the special driver software. If you have further questions, please contact the HP Competence Center.

Solution
Store the following two shell scripts in the directory /usr/sap//SYS/exe/run:
mtxrew.sh:
---------
CURR_SLOT=`mtx -d $1 -s | grep Drive | awk ' { print $3 }'`
mtx -d $1 -u $CURR_SLOT -l $CURR_SLOT

mtxoff.sh:
---------
CURR_SLOT=`mtx -d $1 -s | grep Drive | awk ' { print $3 }'`
NEXT_SLOT=`mtx -d $1 -s | grep Drive | awk ' { print $3+1 }'`
mtx -d $1 -u $CURR_SLOT -l $NEXT_SLOT

Adjust the init.sap profile as follows: rewind = "mtxrew.sh $"
rewind_offline = "mtxoff.sh $"
tape_address =
tape_address_rew =

Parameter tape_pos_cmd remains unchanged in this case: tape_pos_cmd = "mt -t $ fsf $"
This solution is supported as of BRBACKUP version 3.0E/2.2I.

Caution:
Make sure that one more tape than necessary for the backup is placed in the autoloader to prevent the failure of the last mtxoff.sh call. You can use a scratch tape that you load at the end, but do not use.

The HP autoloader can also be called via BACKINT/OmniBack. Please contact HP for more information.