Catalog old media - loading media/queued

[antk]

Hi,

I've recently replaced my Backup Exec Server and my LTO4 autloader for an LTO5 autoloader.

I'm trying to catalog some old tapes to look for some files which a user is looking for.

I've put the old media in to the LTO5 autoloader, run an inventory job - it detects the media (but doesn't read the label) and sticks it in the retired media media set.

When I then try and catalog the tapes (the backup job would have spanned three tapes) it just sits for literally hours (15+) and alternates between "Queued" and "Loading Media" and the tape keeps loading and unloading from the drive.

What am I doing wrong?

I've still got the old LTO4 autoloader... so my next step is to try that... but I'd really rather not as it'll involve mucking around with SCSI cards.

[Larry_Fine]

What are the tapes?  If they are LTO2, then they cannot be read by the LTO5 drive.

If they are LTO3 or LTO4 tapes, then I would suggest running the SCSI tracer and doing an inventory job.  Are there any errors in the inventory job log?

[antk]

They're LTO4 tapes - so should definitely be ok to read on the new drive.

How do I run the SCSI tracer?

[VJware]

Using tracer - http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH49432

Try deleting the media from the retired media set (it will not delete any actual data from the tape) & retry inventory & catalog...before catalog, from tools-options-catalog, uncheck the option for use storage media catalogs...

[antk]

Magic - thanks very much for that.

I'll give it a whirl on Monday - not in the office until then!

[antk]

I've tried deleting the media from the retired media set and retried the inventory and catalog... no luck.

I've also tried the various options under the "tool-operation-catalog" menu.

What should I be looking for the in the SCSI-tracer logs?

[Larry_Fine]

In the SCSI tracer, look for any events in the "check" column, then see what is down in the Sense/ASC/ASCQ lines for that event.  Hopefully something will leap out at you as being obviously wrong.  Not all "check" conditions are truly bad, as some are routine/expected.

If you don't see anything bad in the tracer from an inventory job, then it must be something that BE actually  read from the tape that made it put it in the "retired" media set.  I wouldn't worry about trying to catalog until you get inventory working good and can keep the media out of "retired".

Here is an example of a command with an interesting (put appropriate) "check" condition.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Event    Check      Start                     End        Target                                                                 Operation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
640      C 73005    11/06/2012 15:05:05.252   2          06:00:03:00 [IBM     ULT3580-TD4     00078C09F2]                       WRITE_FILEMARKS
==================================================================================================================================================================

Event:       640  Start: 15:05:05.252  Stop:  15:05:05.254  Duration:  0.002000
SCSI Address: 06:00:03:00 [IBM     ULT3580-TD4     00078C09F2]
Function                                SRB_FUNCTION_EXECUTE_SCSI
SCSI Status                             SCSISTAT_CHECK_CONDITION
Sense Length                            20
Data Length                             0
Driver Result                           STATUS_SUCCESS

Raw CDB
10 00 00 00 01 00                               ......

CDB Operation                           WRITE_FILEMARKS
 LUN                                    0
 Setmark                                False
 Immediate                              False
 Count                                  1
 Control                                0x00

Sense Data
70 00 07 00 00 00 00 58 00 00 00 00 30 05 50 00 p......X....0.P.
10 37 00 00                                     .7..
 Filemark                               False
 EOM                                    False
 ILI                                    False
 Sense key                              DATA_PROTECT
 ASC                                    INCOMPATIBLE_MEDIUM_INSTALLED
 ASCQ                                   CANNOT_WRITE_MEDIUM_INCOMPATIBLE_FORMAT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

[antk]

Well - I've run the SCSI tracer tool while doing an inventory job - the tape labels aren't read and the media gets put into "retired media". I've looked at the SCSI tracer logs but I can't see anything obvious - these are the only bits that have something in the check column:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Event:       492  Start: 10:53:54.133  Stop:  10:53:54.164  Duration:  0.031003

SCSI Address: 03:07:00:00

Function                                SRB_FUNCTION_EXECUTE_SCSI

SCSI Status                             SCSISTAT_CHECK_CONDITION

Sense Length                            20

Data Length                             32768

Driver Result                           STATUS_SUCCESS

Raw CDB

08 01 00 00 01 00                               ......

CDB Operation                           READ6

 LUN                                    0

 SILI                                   False

 Fixed                                  True

 Length                                 1

 Control                                0x00

Data

54 41 50 45 20 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 TAPE xxxxxxxxxxx

78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 78 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sense Data

F0 00 20 00 00 00 01 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .. .............

2C 72 00 00                                     ,r..

 Filemark                               False

 EOM                                    False

 ILI                                    True

 Sense key                              NO_SENSE

 ASC                                    NO_ADDITIONAL_SENSE

 ASCQ                                   NO_QUALIFIER_SENSE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Event:       432  Start: 10:53:40.933  Stop:  10:53:40.948  Duration:  0.015001

SCSI Address: 03:07:00:00

Function                                SRB_FUNCTION_EXECUTE_SCSI

SCSI Status                             SCSISTAT_CHECK_CONDITION

Sense Length                            20

Data Length                             0

Driver Result                           STATUS_SUCCESS

Raw CDB

00 00 00 00 00 00                               ......

CDB Operation                           TEST_UNIT_READY

 LUN                                    0

 Control                                0x00

Sense Data

70 00 06 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 p...........(...

94 09 00 00                                     ....

 Filemark                               False

 EOM                                    False

 ILI                                    False

 Sense key                              UNIT_ATTENTION

 ASC                                    NOT_READY_TO_READY_CHANGE_MEDIUM_MAY_HAVE_CHANGED

-------------

Can anyone shed any light on the issues from the output above?

Cheers,

Ant