Does our Sony AIT2 (SDX-500V) Drive need to be replaced?

[Craig_Pilkingto]

We have an SONY AIT SDX-500V Tape Drive. Thus far, we've had no issues in the 2yrs that the drive has been used. But over the past week, we have had several jobs fail with the following errors in the job history/job log:
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Storage device "SONY AIT-2 (SDX-500V)" reported an error on a request to write a file mark to media.

Error reported:
Data error (cyclic redundancy check).

This could be caused by either a dirty tape drive, bad media, or a SCSI problem.V-79-57344-34028 - Error reading/writing data from/to the media.
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Error : e00084ec - Error reading/writing data from/to the media. For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34028
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----- TapeAlert Events -----

The device has reported the following TapeAlert diagnostic information.
Please contact your device manufacturer for more information regarding TapeAlerts.
Critical - The tape system area could not be read successfully at load time:
1. Copy data to another tape cartridge.
2. Discard the old cartridge.
Robotic Library:
Drive: SONY AIT-2 (SDX-500V)
Slot:
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The following errors are also reported in Application / System logs >>>

Source: sonysdx-VRTS
Category: None
EventID: 7
Description:
The device, \Device\Tape0, has a bad block.
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Source: Backup Exec
Category: Devices
Event ID: 33152
Description:
Adamm Mover Error: Read Failure!
Error = ERROR_CRC
Drive = "SONY AIT-2 (SDX-500V)"
{C0E48AB8-27DA-452C-8641-E43D0489A10C}
Media = "8MM-005-BID-WIN2KSERVER"
{B7680683-AF80-4801-BA92-A79788EC79BD}
Read Mode: SingleBlock(0), ScsiPass(1)
Write Mode: SingleBlock(0), ScsiPass(1)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Backup Exec
Category: None
Event ID: 57665
Description:
Storage device "SONY AIT-2 (SDX-500V)" reported an error on a request to write a file mark to media.
Error reported:
Data error (cyclic redundancy check).
This could be caused by either a dirty tape drive, bad media, or a SCSI problem..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Backup Exec
Category: None
Event ID: 65314
Description:
Backup Exec Alert: Tape Alert Error
(Server: "BID-WIN2KSERVER") (Job: "BID-WIN2KSERVER (1): Reg") Critical - The tape system area could not be read successfully at load time:
1. Copy data to another tape cartridge.
2. Discard the old cartridge.
Robotic Library:
Drive: SONY AIT-2 (SDX-500V)
Slot:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Backup Exec
Category: None
Event ID: 34113
Description:
Backup Exec Alert: Job Failed
(Server: "BID-WIN2KSERVER") (Job: "BID-WIN2KSERVER (1): Reg") BID-WIN2KSERVER (1): Reg -- The job failed with the following error: Error reading/writing data from/to the media.
*********************************************************************
It doesn't always fail on first job, but it's becoming more frequent. Also, our 2nd job (SQL/Exch DBs backup) goes ahead fine, with no errors, but even this has started to fail on odd occasion (same error messages). I've cleaned the drive (cleaning tape) several times, but to no avail. The job failures have got progressively worse. So...

...I'm guessing we have to replace the drive?

Cheers guys

CraigMessage was edited by:
Craig Pilkington

[Keith_Langmead]

First thing you want to do before you go spending loads of money on a new drive is check the media reports (go to Reports, then run the Media Set report), and see what is being reported about the tapes themselves. Soft errors could be all kinds of things, but if you are seeing lots of Hard errors on your tapes then that's something to worry about.

How old are your current tapes? The cheapest and easiest option to try initially would simply be to replace all or some of your current tapes and see if you still have problems. If it's the tapes at fault then your problem will be solved, if it's the drive then it's probably best to start off with a new drive and new tapes, so you'll want to replace them anyway, so might as well do it now before buying a new drive.

[Craig_Pilkingto]

Hi Keith

We have only just (well, relatively recently - around 5 weeks) purchased the AIT2 tapes for our drive. There seem to be lots of errors on the tapes. So, don't know if it's simply a dodgy batch or whatever. As I say, I've experienced the odd, rare job failure in the past (We've had the drive several years), but when this has happened I have just cleaned the drive. Now, however, the errors/job failures have been occuring nearly every job for the past few days. What's weird is that Fridays first job failed (CRC / tape alert errors etc), but the 2nd scheduled job was completed successfully - Bizarre!

As you can see, the amount of errors is large >>>

Backup from mid last week >>>

Seek Errors: 0
Soft Write Errors: 2232
Hard Write Errors: 2
Soft Read Errors: 17
Hard Read Errors: 1

Most recent (Last Friday's tape) shows >>>

Seek Errors: 0
Soft Write Errors: 46
Hard Write Errors: 1
Soft Read Errors: 21
Hard Read Errors: 9

On our previous batch of tapes, we experienced soft read/write errors...but I can't recall seeing any 'hard' write errors. Since moving over to the new AIT2 tapes, they have been fine (initially) but now, as I say, we seem to be getting more errors. Of course, it could be purely co-incidental and the drive could be on the way out.Message was edited by:
Craig Pilkington

[Keith_Langmead]

Well in that case I'm definitely leaning to the possibility that it might well be the drive itself at fault rather than the media, though I'd still be tempted to get some new tapes, possibly from a different manufacturer, and give them a try, in case as you say it turns out to simply be a case of your existing tapes being a bad batch or something.

[Craig_Pilkingto]

Thanks a lot, mate! Much appreciated.

I will test again tonight and I've ordered some new tapes anyway. But, like yourself, I'm thinking that the drive is on it's last legs - lol.

Will certainly report back with results

Cheers

Craig

[Craig_Pilkingto]

I stopped and restarted all the Backup Exec services yesterday, before going home for the day. I don't know whether this has effected things, but yesterdays backups were successful (both jobs). I checked and there are still soft read/write errors, but I assume Backup Exec recovers from these while running the jobs.

I will monitor again for tonight's jobs.

Cheers

Craig

[Craig_Pilkingto]

Jobs have been all running successfully for past few days. Must have been a few bad tapes. Oh well, I've ordered some spares in.

I think that when our AIT2 Drive does eventually hand in the towel, I will replace it with an LTO or something like that.

Cheers

Craig