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End Marker Unreadable etc...

Kimlynusa
Level 3

Hi, any help greatly appreciated

Backup jobs started failing and marking tapes Infinte-Don't Allow Overwrite, unappendable (End Marker Unreadable). I have created a simple backup job and it runs successfully. I have run the cleaning tape each time I have been told, put the tapes back in, retired the media, deleted them and inventoried them. I tried to catalog them and the catalog job fails. I have run a quick erase and a long erase and the tapes come back as scratch overwritable, not appendable. I have all the patches, updates and service packs applied. Restarted the BEWS 12.5 service. No change. All these tapes can't be bad, isn't this particlar error supposed to be fixable.

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Accepted Solutions

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Read my article below on how to interpret and handle your tape errors.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/tape-statistics-explained

I think you should get your tape drive replaced.

 

BTW, this is a user-supported forum and as such there is no commitment to respond in a given time frame.  If your problem is urgent, I would suggest that you open a support case with Symantec.

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7 REPLIES 7

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

Do you notice any read/write errors under Statistics...if yes, run a diagnostics test under the tape drive...Also, do your disk backups complete successfully ?

Ken_Putnam
Level 6

This can be caused if a media server loses connection to a Remote Agent during a Remote Backup.  It can also happen if the BackupExec services die during a job.

 

"put the tapes back in, retired the media, deleted them and inventoried them. I tried to catalog them and the catalog job fails."

Yeah, once you get the quoted error on a tape volume, there isn't mch you can do to recover anthing that was on it when the error occurs.  You need to relabel and use as a scratch volume

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Your "end marker not readable" problem with your tapes is the result of your job failure.  Once you have fixed the job failure problem, then you would not have your "end marker not readable" problem anymore.  You should look at your joblog to see what is the cause of your problem.

When a tape has "end marker not readable", it cannot be appended to, for obvious reason.  However, it can be overwritten.  To re-use the tape, you either wait for the OPP to expire and then overwrite it, or move it to the scratch media set and you can immediately overwrite it.  You don't have to retire or relablel it.

Kimlynusa
Level 3

Thought I fixed the issue. It just started all over again. Daily and Full Backups had completed up to 2/20/12.

On the tandberg 3hh device the errors are as follows: 3150 soft read errors, 18 hard read errors, 928 Soft write errors, 17 hard write error. I found and ran the diag and the tracer. I'd like for someone to read it and give me more suggestions. I ran the diag and I am not sure how to read it. I ran 2 tracers not over 1mb. The first trace shows where my tape drive paused itself and I had to cancel the job before the tape would eject and then I restarted the BEWserver and tape drive came back online. These traces are exported to text. Please explain to me the events dropped, especially before the big errors at 10:56. The event viewer shows the error id9, source adpu320 with the generic description of :

The device, \Device\Scsi\adpu3201, did not respond within the timeout period.

I know it says to check my drivers but could someone verify that it is pointing to the Adaptec SCSI Card 29320LPE - Ultra320 SCSI, otherwise, I'm going in the wrong direction. Of course, I can't do any install /reinstall until everyone is off the system and that won't happen until tonight or this weekend. Or is this really saying we need to replace the Tandberg 3HH? Has anyone else experienced this? Please read and get back to me before 4:30p today.

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

Read my article below on how to interpret and handle your tape errors.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/tape-statistics-explained

I think you should get your tape drive replaced.

 

BTW, this is a user-supported forum and as such there is no commitment to respond in a given time frame.  If your problem is urgent, I would suggest that you open a support case with Symantec.

Kimlynusa
Level 3

Luckily it was still under warranty and we had the drive replaced no errors now!! Yay, Thanks pkh.

Thanks to all that gave suggestions too!

Kimlynusa
Level 3

pkh,

 

Thank you for your kind reply!

I realize it is a forum, a very vaulable one at that! I apologize for phrasing my hopeful request of a reply. I am truly greatful for the reply and I shall read up on your article.