How do I find out why the tape is ejecting mid backup?

[Jao]

Hi

I'm running Veritas 10 with the latest service pack using a Sony AIT4 200/500 with the latest veritas driver.  My backup job is spitting the tape out mid-backup with the error message and I'd like to know why so I can troubleshoot the problem. The error message I'm getting is of the "Please insert overwritable media into the drive." variety with an event ID of 58061

The tape is ejecting at about 120-140GB into the backup.  I've tried swapping the tape and the drive. If I could find out the reason for the eject maybe I could fix it, eg is it ejecting because it thinks there isn't enough capacity on the tape.

The media report is telling me that the capicty is 195GB, with about 120G written and an available capacity of 0. It also says my compression ratio is 0.5:1 (which tells me it's doubling the data I want to back up).  I'm getting no errors and a backup speed of about 60GB/Hour

Help

Message Edited by Jao on 07-10-200701:17 AM

[Ken_Putnam]

Compression fo less than 1:1 has come up several times, but I don't remember what the resolution (if any) was/were

Are you on the latest Symatec Drivers?  Have you tried manufacturer drivers?

Have you tried running a pass or two of the manufacturere diagnostics?

[Jao]

Thanks for the reply.

I was using the latest Veritas drivers, and latest Service pack.  I've tried with hardware compression, software compression and no compression.

With any kind of compression I get about 120-140GB on the 200GB tape

with no compression I get 100G

If I use backup to disk with compression enabled the whole 260G backup is saved to a directory where the total size of the backup is 155G

I, uploaded the latest Sony driver, and have so far tried Hardware compression and no compression with the same results.

I have a few more tests to do including the diagnostics which will take me another week as I only get 4 hours testing time per day (which I have to do in my own time from 8pm till midnight) and it takes roughly 4 hours to get to the point where the backup ejects the tape.

[Ken_Putnam]

With any kind of compression I get about 120-140GB on the 200GB tape

with no compression I get 100G

It sounds to me like you are using media that have a max uncompressed storage of 100GB, to 200GB  Doujble check the specifications for your media type (what type are they)

If you get compression to disk, you should also get compression to tape

[Jao]

Hi

It's an Sony AIT4 Drive with 200/500 AIT4 Tapes.

Veritas recognises the tapes as having 195GB capacity as seen here

http://www.gamesnite.co.uk/veritas.jpg

I'm 75GB into a Sony TapeTool test at the moment.  The tool gave the connection diagnostic a "Pass", I'm now testing "Read/Write until EOT" with compression on.

[Ken_Putnam]

Yeah, it sees the tape as a 200GB tape (well 195GB) ,  but will only write 140GB to it

Hate to say it, but if the test passes OK, you may need to open a case with Symantec

[Mark_Barnes_3]

Cheers.

Eventually Sony agreed to swap the drive, but it took well over a week of running tests and re-writing emails to their support which they clearly wern't reading past the first few sentences before they did. The new drive works fine now (So much for buying a 3K drive with a 3 year rapid replacement warranty).