Problem with BE mis labeling and lossing tapes.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

The problem I am having is on multiple systems running on different OS Windows 2000 Pro, Window 2000 Server, Windows 2003 with different versions of BE from 9.x to 10.x. The drives are Exabyte VXA2 and the library is the packet loader 1x10.

The problem with the system losing the tapes happens when the system starts to verify the backup and can not find the tape it was using. If you check the device slots you will find the tape. The job will just hang waiting for someone to insert the tape.

As for the miss labeling of the tapes. The software will mark a tape as cleaning media when it is not and use it as cleaning media. It will mark tapes as blank media when it is not blank.

I have worked with Exabyte on this and they say it is a problem with BE.

Any solutions and or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Danny_Wortmann]

We have had the same problem with BE marking tapes as cleaning media or blank media. We are running 10.1 with HP MSL6030 Ultrium 3 tape library.

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Have you inventoried the media?

Have you defined the correct slot for cleaning media?

Update the firmware.

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[Andrew_Shaffer]

Most of the times when I do an inventory most of the tapes are marked as blank media when there is a backup on the tape that is not to be overwritten for a few more days.

The slot that has the cleaning media has been defined as cleaning media.

The drive and library has the latest firmware from Exabyte install on them.

One of the system in question just had the drive RMAed from Exabyte.

[padmaja_rajopad]

Hi,

"The problem with the system losing the tapes happens when the system starts to verify the backup and can not find the tape it was using. If you check the device slots you will find the tape. The job will just hang waiting for someone to insert the tape." - Does the job take up more than one tape?

If yes, then when verify operation starts, it follows the same sequence as used for bacckup. It will ask Tape1 to which data was written first and then verify the data on Tape 2 .

So when backup is completed on Tape 2, it must be ejected , Tape 1 inserted so that the verify job can start.



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[Andrew_Shaffer]

So far we have not had a job span more than one tape.

So how would you tell the drive to get the tape from the library? And is not the drive supposed to do this on its own?

We have had the verify fail before it has even started and it can not find the tape. Also we have had the job fail during the jobs verify.

So if you are saying that we will have to have the library eject the tapes after the backup and insert them to verify. Then what is the purpose of having a robotic library?

[Ashutosh_Tamhan]

Have you targeted the backup job to all devices / just the tape drive / to the partitions?

Regards, Ashutosh NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

The one that I am working on with you is setup for the tape drive.

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello,


Are you using Veritas tape drivers for the tape drive ?

Are there errors reported in Event logs regarding the tape driver ? If so what are they ?


Kindly update.


Regards


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[Andrew_Shaffer]

The drivers that are being used are Veritas V5.1 4/5/04.

There are no errors for the drivers in the event logs.

[Christian_Lang]

It seems that I have got exactly the same Problem with Win 2003 SBS, my System has an Adaptec SCSI Controller (29160) and also VXA2 with 10-1U Autoloader from Exabyte. Backup Exec is Version 10d

Some tapes show up twice - in offline and in online media, once as blank (or cleaning media) and one with the correct info. Both are labeled correctly with the barcode id ...

Any help appreciated ...

[ray_littlefie1]

This symptom sounds like a dirty tape drive or bad tapes. Search the job logs for 'Tape Alert' entries- or better yet if you are configured for email alerts be sure to include the Tape Alert Warning alert to your recipients.


If you have multiple media listings of the same media label, this is a potentially serious problem when it comes time to restore. I would recommend performing some test data restores immediately.

BE doesn't use the media label when selecting tapes, rather when a tape is first assigned to the database, BE assigns an unique GUID to the tape and enters it into is media database. The GUID can be found by clicking on properties from the media tab and clicking at the Media ID. The Media ID is read from the header information each time the tape is loaded. Your getting multiple listings of the same tape because the tape drive is unable to read the header on the tape properly when it is loaded. It either assigns another GUID (effectively creating a new tape- allowing all the previous data to be overwritten!) or is unable to write a GUID, making it a cleaning tape.


Clean the drive, and monitor the tapes for reoccurances of this symptom. Replace tapes as required.

I believe the VXA-2 tape drive requires very frequent cleaning - something like every 75 hours (but check the Exabyte manual).

[Michael_Shelton]

I have the same hardware and I'm having similar issues. As for the cleaning, the tape drive might need frequent cleanings, but it lets you know this as well. I've had a bunch of issues with tapes not being read, being mislabeled, etc.

I think it could help if Veritas built a tape type for the VXA-2 8mm media and then use bar code rules to keep track of the tapes. I've created a custom tape type and I'm in the process of trying this right now.

I'm pretty frustrated by it and had some temporary fixes in the past, that don't work now.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

I have tried cleaning the drive like four to five times and then doing an inventory of the library. After the inventory most if not all of the tapes which had backups on them, are now marked as blank media.

As for losing the tape during a verify on a one tape backup. Is there any more suggestions for this issue.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

I have tried cleaning the drive like four to five times and then doing an inventory of the library. After the inventory most if not all of the tapes which had backups on them, are now marked as blank media.

As for losing the tape during a verify on a one tape backup. Is there any more suggestions for this issue.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

I have tried cleaning the drive like four to five times and then doing an inventory of the library. After the inventory most if not all of the tapes which had backups on them, are now marked as blank media.

As for losing the tape during a verify on a one tape backup. Is there any more suggestions for this issue.

[Andrew_Shaffer]

I have tried cleaning the drive like four to five times and then doing an inventory of the library. After the inventory most if not all of the tapes which had backups on them, are now marked as blank media.

As for losing the tape during a verify on a one tape backup. Are there any more suggestions for this issue?

[Michael_Shelton]

I am trying to open a case with Direct Assist. This is getting very old. Does you media get marked offline frequently as well ? That's my problem I have every tape multiple times but listed as offline......sometimes right after it was used by the system.

[Christian_Lang]

At least in my case it seems that if one tape is marked offline the same time another one with the same label / barcode id (because it's the same tape ...) is created and appears as online

[Andrew_Shaffer]

I have not yet had the system mark it as offline as of yet.