RD1000 Unable to Eject after backups complete

I posted the same problem on a different section of the board.  We have a Dell PE840 with RD1000 drive that was working fine on v11 and now will not eject on v12.  I found the same problem reported regarding the Symantec System recovery on their forum.  The solution in that case was a patch from Symantec.  I referenced that in my notes but no one from Symantec has responded.  For now we are following the below steps to keep from having to reboot the server.  These are user level instructions as I had to send them to my client. 

 

Below are the steps to eject the tape.  For now the best course of action is to wait for a patch from Symantec to fix the problem.  If you want me to walk you through the steps I will be glad to.

 

Open Services
Locate the RDXmon service, Right click and stop the service
Open Windows Explorer Navigate to the RD1000 drive, right click select Eject
Click Continue on warning messages, sometimes it appear 2 or 3 times
Wait a few seconds,  if it doesn't eject, right click and select Eject again
Change tape
Go back to Services and right click and start the RDXmon service

 

This is a copy of what I posted in the other section of the forum.

 

While that's an okay workaround for an administrator (me or my techs) that is not going to work for the managers that need to just swap the cartridges every day.  We set these servers up and continually monitor them and can administer them from remote locations (as we're not full-time onsite staff), but ultimately our clients will be the ones that swap the daily cartridges out and those folks won't have admin/console access to log in.

 

They expect, as they did with BE10d and 11d, to spend 10 seconds pushing the eject button, snapping in the next cartridge, and walking away without ever logging in.  In fact, many of these servers don't even have mice/keyboards because I use RDP/remote logins to manage them, so they couldn't log in locally anyway without bringing a mouse/keyboard over and plugging it in.

 

Any solution that requires more interaction than pushing the [Eject] button on the drive is not going to work, because any solutions beyond that make the (incorrect) assumption that the person changing the cartridge is a network administrator with console or RDP access to log in to the server.  In the vast majority of cases, the person changing the cartridge is just a non-administrative non-management office worker tasked with the responsibility of "pushing the button" each day.

 

-Dan

Hello?  Does anyone at Symantec read these forums?

 

I would have thought with an issue of this magnitude ("product not working, can't complete a single backup on a commonly-used device that's on the Symantec HCL" ) that someone at Symantec would have at least posted a response by now.

 

We're in the process of starting to revert our four servers that we've rolled out on the product back to version 11d, which worked fine for months and months.  With no support or even response on this issue, we've now moved to telling our clients to hold off on any plans for upgrade to BE12 and to stick with the 11d for now.

 

Clearly BE 12 is still a beta-quality product and is not quite ready for prime time.  Neither does support appear to be ready for an issue of this gravity.

 

-Dan

 

The forums  are primarily Peer-to-Peer.  Symantec employees read/respond as their other duties permit

 

The only Symantec support you can "count" on is to open a paid incident or to have a maintenance agreement inplace  (if you want to catagorize any Symantec support as something you can count on :smileywink:  )

Ahh...  I see. 

 

So "forums" is another feature provided to us by Symantec so that we can "figure out the problems on our own" rather than have to call the company who caused them in the first place...

 

Nice "benefit".

 

By the way (as we have a support and maintenance contract) I called in this morning.  After waiting 45 minutes on hold to talk to (I presume by the accent) someone in India, I had to spend the first 5 minutes trying to explain to him what an RD1000 cartridge was.  This is the support I paid for?  (reiterating again: RD1000 is on the BE12 HCL, so in theory I'd expect their support to have at least a remote clue as to what I'm dealing with).  The best answer he was able to give me (from what I could understand through the thick accent and low-volume) was that I had to start/stop some service to get the cartridge to eject because you're not supposed to be able to "just eject" a removable storage device.

 

Ummm... worked fine for a year under BE10 and 11, so....?

 

Tier 2 support will be calling me tomorrow morning.  Perhaps they know what an RD1000 is.

 

-Dan

Well chancing getting my head ripped off again for trying to be helpful,  we have one client that use the RD1000 that is running v12 without a problem but this was a fresh install not an upgrade.

Layla,

 

I apologize, if you're referring to my original response to you above I was not trying (nor intending in any way) to "attack" you or your posting.  I was just trying to keep a "factual" tone and saying that while the solution may work, it's not going to be practical for the clients we've set up.  That said, I appreciate your suggestion and I have nothing against you personally...

 

:)

 

 

-Dan

Good Morning Dan,

 

I was wondering if Tier 2 support ever called to resolve your issue with the RD1000?

 

Thanks,

Layla

Yes they did, but unfortunately as an IT Tech/Implementer I'm out of the office most of the time and I'm difficult to get a hold of "whenever they happen to call".  To their credit, they always seem to call back, but it's usually 2-3 hours later when I've already left for client appointments for the day.

 

Calling them back and punching in the case # into their robo-dialer system is useless and never gets me to the tech--always to "your tech isn't answering, so please leave the tech a message and we'll call you back sometime" generic voice mail box.

 

It just surprises me that despite paying for a support contract along with the product, I've been unsuccessful in getting any support on this issue.  I don't want "support at some pre-arranged time".  I want support when I call, because that's when I'm at a server and I happen to be in the office and have 30-60 minutes available in my already-hectic schedule to look at this issue.  At this point, despite having case numbers and a supposedly-assigned tech rep, we have no solution and we're ready to start evaluating and possibly recommending other companies' backup solutions moving forward.

 

Abysmal.

Okay, I have progress on the issue. Not necessarily good news, but progress anyway.

 

After 90 minutes on the phone this morning, I was told that this is a "known issue" in the product, and is currently in Engineering.  The plan, at current, is to issue a hotfix at some future time (no clues as to lead time).

 

The current recommended solution is to go back to Backup Exec 11d.

 

Related articles include: