Inventory of LTO2 tapes goes to queued state

[mcbishop]

I have a backup system using Backup Exec 2010, an ADIC SCALAR 100 and Pathlight PVX.  I am trying to restore data from old backups (2011).  I no longer have the catalogs of those backups.  I put the tapes in the Scalar, try to inventory and the tapes go to a queued state.  I had the same problem with other tapes I was trying to catalog.

I had success previous to the issue I am having now.  Now I am unable to inventory or catalog anything without the jobs going to a queued state.

I also receive an error when rebooting my backup server that says  Inventory Scanner in windows had a problem and needs to close.  I am guessing this is related to my problem, but not sure.

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has for me.

Thank you,

[SuperBrain]

Never seen that sort of error occuring with BE.

However, did you attempt to Pause and Unpause the server from Devices tab?

If not, go to Devices tab - Right Click on the media server name - select Paused

Right click again and select Unpause

Attempt to run an inventory job and see if it works?

[Donald_Eady]

I remember reading about a very similar issue while browsing the forum. Please give the following a shot.

"Go to the devices tab, click on the media server, pause it (if it is not paused) then unpause it, and the inventory jobs should work"

[lmosla]

Hi,

If the above didnt resolve the issue,   I have also seen this when there is a tape stuck in the drive of the library.  Backup Exec goes into a queued state because it is unable to see the tape since it is stuck in the drive and not in a slot. You can check in the manufacturer's Library application to see if this is the case. If is is just make sure to restart the Backup Exec services after you move the tape out of the drive, and then retry the inventory job.
 

Hope this helps,

Lenora

[mcbishop]

Thank you for all comments.  I will give them a shot.

[pkh]

1) Try running a small backup to the tape drive.

2) Run the manufacturer's diagnostic utility against the tape drive. Make sure that you select the write test and that you have stopped all the BE services beforehand.

[mcbishop]

Pausing and unpausing allowed me to inventory my tapes.  Thank you very much.  Now I experience my virtual drives go offline if I have multiple jobs running at a time in the Backup Exec.  This might mean I can only run one or two jobs at a time.

[Donald_Eady]

mcbishop,

          Please provide a little more information in regard to your last question.

How many jobs are you trying to run?

What times are the jobs runnin?

is the number of jobs that knock the drives offline consistant ?

What does the event viewer report at the time of failure?

[mcbishop]

I could be running two different inventory jobs at the same time I am restoring data and the virtual drives could go offline.  Sometimes it is just two or three out of the six.  Event viewer is no help.

[mcbishop]

I also have a problem where an LTO2 tape won't go into the system.  I put the tape in the ADIC door, and Pathlight is supposed to pull the tape in so I can proceed with importing the tape to Backup Exec.  The tape just sits in the door and doesn't import.

[Donald_Eady]

Does windows show the drives as offline or just backup exec

[mcbishop]

Just backup exec

[Donald_Eady]

does this happen at the same time every day possibly when BE maintenance is runnning?

[mcbishop]

No.

[Donald_Eady]

MC. i have seen in the past where jobs running when B.E. maintenance is running has cause the disk locations to show offline. As this is not your issue i would suggest opening a support case with symantec so that you and a TSA can work to resolve this issue.

[mcbishop]

Thank you for your help and recommendation.  I appreciate it.