Forum Discussion

Muggli's avatar
Muggli
Level 3
20 years ago

Ready; no idle drive are available when trying to unlock a library

Since upgrading from 9.1 to 10d(Rev 5629 with latest Veritas Device Drivers), I have been unable to unlock the library when all the tapes have been used and the backup job is waiting for new tapes to be inserted.
I have a situation where the library will not hold as many tapes as the job requires.
When all the tapes have been used , the job waits for another tape to be inserted. I then have to unlock the library and change the tapes.
Since the upgrade, the unlock job states that it´s 'ready; no idle drives are available', even if it started with the highest priority.
This worked great with 9.1. Is there a setting I can use to unlock the library so I can access the magazine?

My configuration:
Windows 2003 Server
Veritas 10d (Rev. 5629)
Latest Veritas Device Driver (12/15/2005)
HP SureStore Tape Autoloader 1/9 with Ultrium 1 Drive
HP 64-Bit/133MHz PCI-X 2CH Ultra320 HBA (latest drivers)
RSM disabled
NO CASO
No Errors or Messages in Eventlog

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Elke
  • Hello,

    - Do you receive any events in the event logs?

    - Do you have the Bar Code enabled?

    - This may occur if you have set the device on a raid controller.

    - Please ensure that the device is installed on its own seperate SCSI controller.
    - Also check if the latest drivers are installed. You can download the latest veritas drivers from

    http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/280068.htm

    ******************************************************************
    *****************************************************************

    Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.


    Thanks.
  • Hello, thanks for your reply

    ss I mentioned above:

    - no events in Eventlog
    - own scsi controller
    - latest drivers http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/280507.htm

    We use bar codes and the drive and the autoloader recognise them, so I guess they are enabled? Otherwise you have to tell me, where they can be enabled.

    Thanks.
  • Hello,

    It seems the device is connected to its own SCSI controller. When the system reboots, check the SCSI Id to which it is connected and ensure that it doesn't use SCSI Id 0 or 1 as they are used for the bootable devices. Refer to the following technote for more information on this:

    How to troubleshoot issues with a Robotic Library or Tape Drive in Backup Exec 9.x and 10.x
    http://support.veritas.com/docs/255501

    Refer to the following section in the technote:

    It may be possible that the SCSI IDs for the robotic library are at a higher SCSI ID than the tape drives that are in the robotic library. It is recommended that the tape library be at SCSI ID 2, and that the drives that are part of the library start at SCSI ID 3, and continue upward. Please refer to your hardware documentation on changing these SCSI IDs.

    Revert with details if the issue persists.

    Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.

    Regards.
  • The device IS connected to it´s own controller. The device ID for the Library is 0, for the tape 1. It has been this way from the beginning (when we started with BE 9) and I cannot set it to a different ID at the moment.
    As it worked with Version 9 of Backup Exec I cannot see why I have to change SCSI-IDs when using Version 10?

    Elke
  • Hello,
    please check if the device is listed in the HCl:
    http://support.veritas.com/docs/274348
    http://support.veritas.com/docs/274347
    NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answeredand would be moved toanswered questions pool.
  • It is listed in the following HCL

    http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/274348.htm

    It´s not listed in
    http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/274347.htm
    as it´s no standalone drive.

    Elke
  • Hi,

    Jobs , Inventory, Lock, Unlock, Label, & Erase submitted but while a job is prompting for media will hang indefinitely in a "Ready; No Idle Devices are available" state in the Job Monitor until the backup job is canceled or is able to resume/complete.

    The display on the tape hardware shows that the device is idle and ready, even though Backup Exec believes it not to be.

    For a loader without a mail slot/barcode reader, resume that requires additional media is to right click on the slot(s), select Import, eject the magazine, replace the tapes, then right click on the slots, and select "Scan".

    If a library has a mail slot, the import/export commands can be issued and an initialize can be run on the loader's slots, after the media has been replaced.

    Update us on the same and revert for any further Query
    Hope this will help you


    Thank you
    Gauri

    Additional Information :
    For information on the recent VERITAS Backup Exec security vulnerabilities, including links to the downloads for the necessary hotfixes, please refer to the following document:
    Patch summary for Security Advisories VX05-001, VX05-002, VX05-003, VX05-005, VX05-006, VX05-007

    http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277429.htm



    NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.
  • Thanks for all your help. I�m afraid I cannot test the last "import - eject- scenario", because the library was replaced by a bigger on last week, so we don�t have a problem at the moment.
    But I will keep it in mind, if the error occurs again.

    Elke