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Mehraban1's avatar
Mehraban1
Level 4
12 years ago
Solved

Why tapes are getting freezed?

Dears in Support,

We are having strange problem with tapes getting freezed once a month and if we unfreeze them and restart all services or reboot the server then we are able to start backing up normally. My question is here,   Why do these tapes are getting freezed? and we are actaully getting "storage unit has none available(96)" error. Others servers are running smoothly and we are having this problem with only one of our servers. 

We are running:

1) Netback 7.1.03, On windows server 2008 R2

2) Dell EKM 3.0 

Anybody can tells how to findout the reason for tapes being freezed?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
Error messages
NetBackup
Troubleshooting
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • sri_vani's avatar
    sri_vani
    12 years ago

    There would be many possible reasons for media getting freezed; It may be because of bad media,tape drive issue,drive configuration issues,media contains non backup frmt etc

    The right approach is to start  investigating  through logs: so plz refer below link to start troubleshooting:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH21473

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO34185

    Verify tape log reports, along with the bptm on media server) ,the Windows Event Viewer System Log and application  for the same time and date for the errors.

    Long back I read Martin's excellent comments for tape getting freezed,but unfortunately I dint find it now to share it with you..(I ll try again)

     

     

     

     

  • Mehraban1's avatar
    Mehraban1
    12 years ago

    Thank you every one for trying to help me!  

    Here are some updates:

    1)  I checked first system events and found the error " The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\DR0". ( event ID 11) 

    2) I went to Dell drivers and support site and entered the TL2000 service tag and got updated Firmwares and Windows drivers for the unit and downloaded them.

    3) Then I updated the backupunit and its both drives firmware, and also updated drivers for windows server 2008 r2. 

    4) Rebooted the server and backup unit after changes and I UNFREEZED the tapes manually and for the past one week it is working, I would be successful if this continues to work for at least 6-8 weeks.  Because before it was working for a few days/weeks then tapes were getting frozen.

    I will update the result after 6-8 weeks. 

    Best regards,

    Ed

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  • sri_vani's avatar
    sri_vani
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    There would be many possible reasons for media getting freezed; It may be because of bad media,tape drive issue,drive configuration issues,media contains non backup frmt etc

    The right approach is to start  investigating  through logs: so plz refer below link to start troubleshooting:

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH21473

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO34185

    Verify tape log reports, along with the bptm on media server) ,the Windows Event Viewer System Log and application  for the same time and date for the errors.

    Long back I read Martin's excellent comments for tape getting freezed,but unfortunately I dint find it now to share it with you..(I ll try again)

     

     

     

     

  • mph999's avatar
    mph999
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    If the tapes are getting frozen, this would explain the 96 - it goes through freezing tapes until it runs out.  Therefore the 96 is most likey caused by the frozen tapes and therefore is not the issue.  Ie.  Fix the frozen tape issue and the 96 will disapperar.

    Need to see :

    bptm log covering an example of when a tape is frozen

    <install path>\veritas\netbackup\db\media\errors file from each media server

    System event log (exported in txt format)

    May ned to increase logging levels :

    Recommend bptm at verbose 5 / general 2

    Add VERBOSE into vm.conf file

    Create empty files:

    ROBOT_DEBUG

    DRIVE_DEBUG

    in dir ...\veritas\volmgr

    Create tpcommand and robots directories in \veritas\volmgr\debug dir

    (Need to restart media manager to pick up these changes)

    Also, Activity monitor details from a job that freezes a tape would be useful.  This should match the date range of the bptm and other logs.

    Depending on the cause, only part of the details above may be reqiored, or if complex, other details may be required.

  • Marianne's avatar
    Marianne
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    No response in 7 days... I guess issue cannot be too serious....

    Another TN:

    How Symantec NetBackup determines if a tape should be frozen or the status of a tape drive should be changed to down, and how to change this behaviour
    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH9748

  • Mehraban1's avatar
    Mehraban1
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    Thank you every one for trying to help me!  

    Here are some updates:

    1)  I checked first system events and found the error " The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\DR0". ( event ID 11) 

    2) I went to Dell drivers and support site and entered the TL2000 service tag and got updated Firmwares and Windows drivers for the unit and downloaded them.

    3) Then I updated the backupunit and its both drives firmware, and also updated drivers for windows server 2008 r2. 

    4) Rebooted the server and backup unit after changes and I UNFREEZED the tapes manually and for the past one week it is working, I would be successful if this continues to work for at least 6-8 weeks.  Because before it was working for a few days/weeks then tapes were getting frozen.

    I will update the result after 6-8 weeks. 

    Best regards,

    Ed

  • Mehraban1's avatar
    Mehraban1
    Level 4
    12 years ago

    As I promised to update about the result.   So far the netbackup is working fine and we no longer see any issue. ( Touch wood) 

    The solution to this issue was to update the Windows driver for backupunit and firmware update on drives and backupunit.

    Many thanks to all who tried to me help!

    Ed