Help! Backup Exec 12.5 with Quantum DLT-V4 drives, lots of issues!
in [Storage]
|
Prev: Help! Backup Exec 12.5 with Quantum DLT-V4 drives, lots of issues!
Next: looking for USB cable that supplies power "downstream"
From: mscotgrove on 27 Apr 2010 12:01 On Apr 27, 2:23 pm, "Kremlar" <krem...(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > Sorry it's very long-winded, but I want to be complete. Please bear with > me. Here's my story: > > SERVER #1 > > - Windows Server 2003 32-Bit SP2 > > - Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Rev 2213 with SP3 and a bunch of hotfixes > > - Intel SE7320SP2 Motherboard > > - Addonics AD2SA3GPX1 PCIe SATA Controller (Silicon Image Sil 3132) > (running latest non-RAID BIOS 7.7.02 & driver 1.0.22.0 dated 10/3/07) > > - Quantum DLT-V4 SATA Internal Drive > (running latest firmware 10.0 & Symantec driver 5.1.37.0 dated 4/12/07) > > - Quantum DLTtape VS1 Tapes > > - Quantum DLT VS160 Cleaning Cartridge > > Approximately 2 months ago we replaced an aging Sony AIT-2 Turbo internal > drive with a new Quantum DLT-V4 SATA internal drive and Addonics SATA PCIe > controller card + tapes. Backup ran fine for a couple weeks, but started > giving us errors: > > Error category : Backup Media Errors > Error : e00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred. This > is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive. Clean the > tape drive, and then try the job again. If the problem persists, try a > different tape. You may also need to check for problems with cabFor > additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34028 > > Errors seemed to follow particular tapes, while other tapes worked fine. > So, I replaced the suspected bad tapes and it would work for a week or so > until the error recoccurred. I replaced I believe 3 tapes. > > One other symptom that I didn't pay much attention to at the time is, at > least some of the time, when the error occurred the CLEAN light would flash > once per second on the drive. When this occurred, I would run a cleaning > cartridge through and swap the tape. > > Sometimes when I found a "bad" tape I could not even successfully run an > INVENTORY or QUICK ERASE on the tape - the drive would go on for minutes and > Backup Exec would sometimes mark the drive as OFFLINE and fail the job. > > Approximately 1-2 weeks ago the error started occurring much more > frequently, and I couldn't get a successful backup even on a brand new tape. > I tried reseating the SATA controller, replacing the SATA cable, and > cleaning the drive - same issue. So, I called Quantum and after much hassle > and running their diagnostics utility they agreed to replace the drive. > > Brand new replacement drive came in and I installed last Friday AM. > Inventoried a couple tapes successfully, then put in Friday night's tape and > found the CLEAN light flashing once per second again (without even starting > a backup job)! This time I looked up this error in Quantum's documentation, > and they indicate it means: > > Calibration error or permanent write/read error, cleaning suggested > > I tried inserting 4 tapes, and 2 out of those 4 consistently produced the > CLEAN light flash while 2 others did not. Running an INVENTORY or QUICK > ERASE on either tape was unsuccessful. The drive would simply go OFFLINE > after a while and fail the job. Since this was a brand new drive, I figured > the tapes might be bad. Which brings me to server #2: > > SERVER #2 > > - Windows Server 2003 R2 32-Bit SP2 > > - Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 Rev 2213 with SP3 and a bunch of hotfixes > > - Intel SE7320EP2 Motherboard > > - Addonics AD2SA3GPX1 PCIe SATA Controller (Silicon Image Sil 3132) > (running latest non-RAID BIOS 7.7.02 & driver 1.0.22.0 dated 10/3/07) > > - Quantum DLT-V4 SATA Internal Drive > (running latest firmware 10.0 & Symantec driver 5.1.37.0 dated 2/12/08 - > same version but different date than Server #1 for some reason) > > - Quantum DLTtape VS1 Tapes > > - Quantum DLT VS160 Cleaning Cartridge > > Approximately 2 weeks ago we replaced an aging Sony AIT-2 Turbo tape drive > on this server, and backups had been running fine. > > So, I decided to take these 2 possibly bad tapes and test them on this > server. Both tapes INVENTORIED fine, ran QUICK ERASES, and I was even able > to run a small test backup without issue. So, I figured the tapes must be > fine. > > Back on Server #1, to be sure the controller card wasn't doing anything > funny, I unplugged the drive from the controller and simply left it hooked > to power. Sure enough, inserting either one of those tapes on Server #1 > still produced the CLEAN light error. > > SO, I then replaced the brand new tape drive on Server #1 direct from > Quantum with ANOTHER brand new drive I had. Once I did that, all tapes seem > to read fine (no CLEAN light). I was able to INVENTORY and QUICK ERASE the > previously suspected bad tapes. I then ran a successful full backup on > Friday night and Monday night - so I figure problem solved (fingers > crossed)! I must have gotten a bad replacement drive from Quantum. > > BUT although Server #2 had successfully run it's backup Friday night, > Monday's backup failed. Checking the log it was the exact same error: > > Error category : Backup Media Errors > Error : e00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred. This > is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive. Clean the > tape drive, and then try the job again. If the problem persists, try a > different tape. You may also need to check for problems with cabFor > additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34028 > > Tried running an INVENTORY and QUICK ERASE on the tape from a remote > location, both completed successfully, but I tried running the backup again > and after a couple GB it again failed with the same error. Came on-site and > found the CLEAN light flashing on this drive as well! > > Replaced that tape with a brand new tape, and it is now in the middle of > running a full backup. It seems it will complete successfully, but won't > know for sure for a couple hours. > > So what the heck is going on? I don't even know what to think at this > point. Could "bad" tapes somehow corrupt the heads on a good drive and > cause a drive failure? > > ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated!! Bad tapes can lose their coatings and hence clog up the heads. With your setup, are the tapes streaming, or shoe shining? Shoe shining can be caused by the data input being to slow, or because it is doing many retries. It does sound as if you have a bad batch of tapes. What make are they? Are they new, or refurbished? Michael
From: Kremlar on 27 Apr 2010 13:32
Thanks for the reply. It seems they do a bit of shoe-shining, but not too bad. I get between 600-700MB/s average, which seems about right compared to other SATA DLT-V4s I have out in the field. The tapes are Quantum DLTtape VS1 tapes (which Quantum says is the right tape to use with their drives), everything is brand new. <mscotgrove(a)aol.com> wrote in message news:b2cdef19-0b26-43d8-8375-1267485097af(a)g11g2000yqe.googlegroups.com... > Bad tapes can lose their coatings and hence clog up the heads. > > With your setup, are the tapes streaming, or shoe shining? Shoe > shining can be caused by the data input being to slow, or because it > is doing many retries. > > It does sound as if you have a bad batch of tapes. What make are > they? Are they new, or refurbished? > > Michael |