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jfkana's avatar
jfkana
Level 4
12 years ago

Backup Exec 2012 Tape drive Issues

Hi folks, we're using BUE2012 in our production and test environments, in our test environment, we keep running into the same issue again, and again, and again. We never had this problem previously and cannot determine what the cause is!

We have BUE2012 running with an IBM LTO4 Tape drive, an Ultrium -TD4. We are using the Symantec drivers and the drive is up to date on firmware.

We CANNOT for love, nor money, perform a successful catalog operation on a tape. for example:

Following a TN and other advice on this website, we removed the Catalogs folder and using 2 of our full backup tapes, we tried to inventory and catalog the tapes to preform a test restore. The tapes wouldn't catalog. At some point during the operation the Drive would be marked as offline. If you onlined it, it'd offline itself again. rinse Repeat.

This machine is used for nothing else, BUE is the only program that would be commanding the drive. Initially it happened when you tried ANYTHING tape related. We then discovered the Symantec drivers were not being used - installed those, removed the old catalogs incase they were corrupt and got 2 fresh full backup tapes to catalog and try a restore. No luck.

One tape finished that contained ~500GB of data but the full tape stopped after 1300GB/1600GB - a frustrating waste of 3 hours!

 

 

2012
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec

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  • Gurvinder's avatar
    Gurvinder
    Moderator
    12 years ago

     

    This has the error desc for  ERROR_GEN_FAILURE : http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH89750

    Please try a slow catalog and see if you run into the same Issue. You can uncheck the use storage media based catalogs option from BE icon on top left hand corner -> Configuration and settings -> Backup Exec settings -> Catalog
  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    [1508] 02/13/13 13:32:41.375 DeviceIo: 04:00:17:00 - Device error 1117 on "\\.\Tape0", SCSI cmd b5, 6 total errors

    SCSI: Raw CDB
    SCSI: B5 20 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 34 00 00             . .......4..
    SCSI:
    SCSI: CDB Operation                           SECURITY_PROTOCOL_OUT

    Your issue seems to be triggered by the B5 SCSI command, which is related to encryption.

    Are you using encryption?  If so, is it hardware or software encryption?

    Is your IBM LTO4 drive stand-alone or is it in a robotic library/changer?

    Are you using LTO3 or LTO4 media?

    You stated that you used to be able to catalog and/or restore previously.  do you know what might have changed since then?

  • jfkana's avatar
    jfkana
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Is there a specific option for 'slow catalog' ? We have unchecked storage media cats in BE, every new cat operation is also preceeded by deleting old cats so there's no conflicts.

    A hardware failure would be unfortuante as this drive is new/unused before now, it has been on a shelf. It's had multiple cleaning cycles run through it and and it will cat/inventory some tapes.

     

    It is most bizarre. I'm gonig to try a test with BUE2010R3 and 2012SP1a with the same drive and see if there's any other problems.

  • jfkana's avatar
    jfkana
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Hi Larry,

     

    Very strange as we do not use encryption on the tapes to the best of my knowledge. It's also strange as it'll cat some tapes but not others! I have another full backup set to try on a fresh tape that isn't 100% full to see if it plays ball then,

    It is a standalone IBM LTO4, rebranded as a Dell Powervault. We're using LTO4 media.

     

    We can Cat/restore in our live environment which is a RoboLib but again uses an IBM lto4 tape drive at the end of the day. I would like to think if the building burned to the ground, we wouldn't need an exact match on hardware to beable to simply catalog a tape.

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    ...there is not such thing as a "slow catalog"...not sure where the previous poster pulled that from!

    Thanks

  • jfkana's avatar
    jfkana
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Hi Craig,

    Looks like 'Fast' catting is using storage-media based cats and 'slow catting' is rebuilding the cats. I would assume in a real-world disaster, we wouldnt have the option of fast-catting anyway.

    I've been deleting the cat folder every operation. I'm currently trying a new Full backup that only spans a single tape for simplicity.

    The previous tape i was using was a monthly tape for jan so it was written in jan 2012 then jan 2013 there. It could be possible that there have been changes to the backup structure or something in those 12 months.

    Currently it's catting and showing a byte count and speed. Previously on the iffy tape - it would occasionally make a lot of sound as it moved through the tape and scanned dirs/files but would not show any byte values so fingers crossed!

  • jfkana's avatar
    jfkana
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Ok new Developments here!

    Managed to successfully catalog a tape containing a full backup, after that job completes, i tried a restore and it failed with the drive going offline, same errors as before.

     

    It would appear the SAS card in use, a PERC 6/E is exclusivly RAID only, and does not support just normal SCSI mode, this seems to be tripping up the hardware/software even though there's nothing else attached.

     

    Procured a plain-jane SAS HBA and now waiting on the new cable (long male sas on each end) and hopefully this'll sort things out!

    Oddly, I got no warnings or compatibility flags pertaining to the controller on installation, or use etc. 

  • Gurvinder's avatar
    Gurvinder
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    good catch. Refer http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH70907 

    Support policy for Host-Bus-Adapters that feature RAID