Meridian mail dead Utopia card - need help

[djs01]

To make a long story short.
day 1-Tech on site locks up mail on his laptop. I dial in remotely and disable his tty then enable and all is well. Tech makes changes to requested mboxes.
day 2-Mail not working, won't come up, re-enabled aml link 9,came up ok
day 3-Mail not working again, unable to re-enable aml link, unable to reboot, reset, pulled utopia card out, sounds like a bad hard drive, just one click, then nothing.
Nothing on laptop when ax is entered, not even a bootup sequence, selftest, nothing. order new utopia card NT6R16AA and locate a used seagate scsi drive, mm12 install tape and tanberg tape drive
day 4-Tried new card with old drive, nothing. Tried new card with new drive and tape backup, seems to want to load, it rewinds tape, then nothing on laptop at ax. Tried everycombination possible, with drives, cards, tape backups, etc. Aml link won't come up, can't bring up mm install screen. Tried sysload, shows some corruption, problems found. Removed all aml data, vas, vsid, acd, and agents on slot 10. save data using edd clr(no go bad data). Re-enter all data. still nothing, no install screen for mermail.
What is left to try? I am thinking of doing a restore from a few months ago, but it almmost seems like the virtual link (ax) is corrupted or unable to connect to the esdi port on the mermail.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Systempt11c rls 24, single cabinet
Mermail rls 12 4port 5hr
On ups and backup battery.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[StanleySteamer]

Haven't dealt with the Entopia card before so I'm not sure if this applies.
For the Card Option MM the bootup would stop at the "Fox Security Check" to confirm the ID of the switch. If the aml is disabled the mail will go no further.

You have to enter ENL AML 9 ACMS in LD 48.
This should start the aml when it sees the the mermail come up.

Steamer

 

[djs01]

Yes we were entering enl aml 9 acms to get the link up. It was not able to come up.

 

[johnpoole]

Utopia card... not up on that nomenclature, is their a way to connect direct to a tty port on that mail. i know ax is the normal connection on the 11, but is that the only way to talk to the mail.. your in a catch 22.. can you test the aml, that card (ssc) may be faulty causing the mail to test bad.. can't be a lot of help on the opt 11/mermail combo but thought i'd throw up a few ???...

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[djs01]

Utopia card is the newer one piece MMail card with hard drive, expansion connectors for more ports, the scsi disk drive and the scsi connector for the backup tape drive.
No way to connect a tty directly afaik.
Could try the SSC card I guess, but I may try a restore on the database and see what happens.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Dave

 

[StanleySteamer]

I don't think you mentioned whether you tried booting from the install tape. That might at least tell you whether the Mail terminal interface is working.
Also, the status of the green LED on the card gives some indication of what may be wrong. When you power it up it should blink once then stay off for about 4 to 5 minutes.
This is described in "Meridian Mail Mini and Enhanced Card Option Installation and Maintenance Guide" 555-7071-210

Steamer

 

[djs01]

Yes we did try booting from the install tape. Nothing on screen at ax prompt,no bootup, selftest, nothing.
Is this guide on the Meridian cd? I'll have a look for it tonight.

Dave

 

[StanleySteamer]

Yes, on the MERLAPP CD (2 of 2).
Under Meridian Mail, Installation and Maintenance
Look at "Meridian Mail Mini and Enhanced Card Option Installation and Maintenance Guide"
Troubleshooting

Steamer

 

[johnpoole]

another nortel improvement they didn't ask me about,, looks like is it want boot off of the install tape, it's almost impossible if trouble shoot.. install tape, card, or just a bad aml link allseem to give the same case of trouble...let us know what you find...johnP

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[djs01]

Got it going.
Turns out the original hard drive was toast (we knew this) and the install tape I had was bad. Looks like someone moved the write protect, and actually used it for a backup.
Located another install tape for MM12 and it works, I am presently installing the software to a used 2Gb Scsi drive, not a factory Nortel drive. We are using the original MMail Utopia card.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Dave