Backup Exec Mail Slot Updates are Ignored Intermittently

[Brian_G__Shackl]

When exporting or importing media to the library, Backup Exec will request a media intervention. When an administrator places or removes a tape, as instructed by the media intervention request, Backup Exec will often fail to notice that media has been placed into, or removed from, the mail slot. It's about a 1/4 success/fail ratio. Often, opening the door on the library and closing it again is the only action required to get Backup Exec to see the change.

The library is an Overland Neo 2000 with one SCSI drive. It's listed as supported on the HCL.

[CraigV]

Have you tried to delete the mail slot and recreate on the library?

Is BE fully patched as well (as you don't mention the version or patch level)?

Thanks!

[lmosla]

In Device Manager check to make sure that under Medium changer it shows Unknown Medium changer. If the OEM driver is shown then right click the OEM driver > Properties and Update the driver so that the Microsoft driver is installed and you see Unknown Medium changer.

also check for Hardware Errors in the Event viewer under Windows Logs > System

[pkh · Accepted solution]

It is not BE's fault.  BE can only respond to status updates from the hardware. If the hardware does not signal to BE that the mailslot is full, then there is nothing much that BE can do.

You might want to try responding to the media intervention alert.  This will kick off the import process.

[Larry_Fine]

as PKH said, BE can only respond to what it knows about.  Since you see the expected alerts sometimes, it appears that your library is sending the optimum info, at least some times.  Some (supported) libraries never send this info and there is nothing BE can do in that case, so you always ahave to manually respind to the alert.

Using the wrong library driver can also intercept this needed device update message, so follow lmosla's guidance to get the right driver installed.