Forum Discussion

revenge_of_the_'s avatar
revenge_of_the_
Level 4
12 years ago
Solved

Tape Drive Going OffiIne

Hi Everybody

I have a HP Proliant ML350 G6 with 2003 R2 (64) and a HP DAT160 USB tape drive with HP drivers and Backup Exec 2010R3 with all the updates applied.

After restarting the Backup Exec services I can run one backup but that night the next back up will fail with the tape going offline.  I have checked the event logs and there is no entry for events 5/7/9/11/15.  I have also disabeled the Removable Storage service.

I have also run the HP tape drive check utility (HP L&TT) which updated the firm ware but does not indicate any issues with the hardware.

Any ideas please?

Thanks

2010
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • revenge_of_the_'s avatar
    revenge_of_the_
    11 years ago

    Hi

    Finally got a solution:

    On the media server, we changed the user mode drivers to kernel mode drivers.For this we set DioDrivers from 2 to 0 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\Adamm and we restarted the BE services.

     

    Been working OK for a few weeks now.

    Thanks to all

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    Hi,

     

    Do the following:

    1. Delete the tape drive from Backup Exec Devices tab, and from Windows Device Manager.

    2. Disconnect the drive, and restart the server. Make sure the tape drive is not listed in WDM.

    3. Shut down the server, and reconnect the drive before turning it on. Start up the server.

    4. Run tapeinst.exe to install the latest tape drives.

    Also make sure that the RSM service is stopped and disabled, along with the HP Insight agents. The ProLiant ML350 G6 would have them installed with the SmartStart CD.

    Thanks!

     

    EDIT: You might also want to consider disabling tape drive polling as per the HP TN below:

    http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c00718488-12%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

  • revenge_of_the_'s avatar
    revenge_of_the_
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Hi

    Do you know how to stop the HP Insite Agents?

    The  HP article you sent is for LTO not DAT.

    Thanks

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    Yes, and it is also for fibre channel. However, I've had to do something similar with a SCSI tape autoloader as part of troubleshooting.

    Go into Services.msc, and anything starting with HP (like HP Storage Agents) can be stopped.

    Thanks!

  • revenge_of_the_'s avatar
    revenge_of_the_
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Thanks, i will give your suggestions a go.

    Weird thing is though, i seem to be able to manually run job after job no problem.  Its just the scheduled ones at nighty that send it off line.

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    OK, that's a bit more information to work with. This COULD be corruption of sorts with either the job, or in the BEDB itself. Try 1, or both, of these:

     

    1. Recreate the job and selection list and schedule the job to run. See what happens and report back...

    2. Open up BEutility.exe and repair the BEDB. Try the normal scheduled job again and report back.

    Thanks!

  • Larry_Fine's avatar
    Larry_Fine
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    check the tail end of the adamm.log for more info about why the drive went offline.  Post the adamm.log file here and we can help you interpret the file.

  • Siddhant_Saini's avatar
    Siddhant_Saini
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    I did review the adamm.log file and found the following: 

    [13532] 11/01/13 01:00:02.599 DeviceIo: 99:00:00:00 - Device error 55 on "\\?\usbstor#sequential&", SCSI cmd 16, 1 total errors

    [13532] 11/01/13 01:00:07.599 PvlDrive::DisableAccess() - ReserveDevice failed, offline device

           Drive = 1005 "HP 0001"

           ERROR = 0x000005B4 (ERROR_TIMEOUT)

     

    [13532] 11/01/13 01:00:07.646 PvlDrive::UpdateOnlineState()

           Drive = 1005 "HP 0001"

           ERROR = The device is offline!

     

    The ERROR_TIMEOUT part indicates that this operation returned because the time-out period expired(a strange scenario for a scheduled job..considering that after as service restart is done, manual jobs complete).

    Please refer to the following article and look for the Event ID's mentioned in it(not only 5,7,9,11 and 15) http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH128041 

     

  • CraigV's avatar
    CraigV
    Moderator
    12 years ago

    ...I don't think that HP Library and Tape Tools will work with a USB drive, but you can try it and see if it gives you errors. You need to stop the BE services first.

    Otherwise, try running a backup using NTbackup. Stop the BE services, and see if you get a similar error/s.

    Thanks!