Tape media recognized as cleaning media

Hi zak,

Check below:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH61720

Thanks!

Hi ,

Thanks Craig! Will try this and update the post!

Hi,

Having some issues with th MSL6000 tape library.. . Now i needed to put in more tapes for the weekly jobs and ran an inventory and i get the following error and i see media as cleaning media again.

Final error: 0xe0008114 - Physical Volume Library Robot not available.
Final error category: Backup Device Errors
Completed status: Failed

There was no problem when BE2010 was running. Its very strange.

Any suggestions!

Thanks!

After you put in the tapes, did you do either scan or an inventory.  This is to update the slot information for BE.  Note that scan is only if you are using barcode labels.

You should also run the HP LT&T utility to make sure that your tape library is function correctly.  Make sure that you select the write test and that you have stopped all the BE services beforehand.

yes i tried both scan and an inventory once i put in the tapes.I am using barcode labels for the tapes.

When i go to the HP LT& T utility the drives are marked crossed. The reason is i am usinf Symantec tape drivers and not HP drivers. I was asked by Symantec Technical Support previously to use only Symantec drivers as it was the recommended.

Do i need to remove the drivers and put HP drivers?

There is something esle which came to my attention a few hours ago. The tape library has been partitioned into two. One of daily tapes and the other one for weekly and monthly tapes. When i went to the properties of each partition, there is an option to choose which drives i need to include. Both the LTO2 and the LTO4 drives were checked for both partitions. I changed them now, so that only one partition uses one tape drive. I did an inventory after this and it succeeded. I am not entirely certain that this was the reason.

Could selecting both the tape drives in both partitions cause the tape library and the inventory to fail?

Thanks!

You should be using Symantec driver for your tape drive and your library should be listed as an Unknown Medium Changer with a Microsoft driver.

When you run the HP LT&T utility, you must stop all the BE services first.  Otherwise, it will not run.

What kind of tapes are you using in your library.  LTO2 tape drive cannot write to LTO4 tapes, likewise LTO4 tape drive cannot write to LTO2 tapes.  Did you set up your barcode rules to prevent these from happening?  See my article below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-use-barcode-labels-prevent-accidental-readwrite-wrong-type-tapes

Thanks pkh for the good article. I am using LTO2 and LTO4 tapes. I did not configure any barcode rules. Since the library is configured into two partitions , i saw under the properties of each partition that it was configured to use both the LTO2 and LTO4 drives. So.. the correct setting would be to configure  the partition having LTO2 tapes to use only LTO2 drive and the parition having LT04 tapes to use only LTO4 drives. Would this be the right thing to do?

Thanks!

You can do that, but you would be restricting your flexibility.

Ok. What i miss out using this option would be that the LTO4 drives wouldnt be able to read LTO2 drives.

So the recommended way be to create bar code rules. Could you guide me on how to set it up as i was not able to find it.

Thanks!

An LTO4 drive should be able to READ LTO2 tapes, but it is not able to WRITE to it.

LTO can write to tapes 1 generation back and read 2 generations back.