RD1000 Unable to Eject after backups complete

[DNeuwir]

Hello all,

We're having troubles with Dell RD1000 cartridges using Backup Exec 12 for Windows Servers (Small Business Server).  In all 4 cases, this is on systems that had previously been running nightly backups using v11d successfully for months (or even a year) without a hitch.

We can back up properly, but we can never eject the cartridges once a backup has been completed.  We press the "eject" button on the drive, but the cartridge will not eject.  It's totally "locked".

This has been tested and confirmed on four unrelated and relatively dissimilar servers at four different locations.  We have tried this with both the Internal (SATA) RD1000 drive chassis and have also reproduced the issue on one of our servers using the external USB drive chassis.  In all cases, the Dell RD1000 "RDXMon" service (which supposedly aides in ejection) is installed and running fine.  In all 4 cases, these drives had been previously successfully used with Backup Exec 11d, and we had done an upgrade installation to v12.  The only change to the system was an upgrade to BE 12, along with all available LiveUpdates (3 at the time).

One of the servers is a clone (running an Asus server motherboard, external USB RD1000 drive).  The remaining 3 servers are Dell PowerEdge 2900 systems using the Internal SATA chassis.

At this point, as best I can tell, we have a serious regression in the product and the product is completely unusable on RD1000-equipped systems (again across 4 locations, we have not had a successful backup, through the point of cartridge ejection yet).  This is holding off a rollout to our remaining 25 servers (there are about 30 total).

I understand that BE cannot "automatically" eject the cartridge as it can with "true" tapes.  But I'm not talking about that.  I'm referring to being totally unable to manually eject the cartridge (using the eject button on the drive) unless I PHYSICALLY POWER OFF the server and power it back on.

Help anyone?  I've got a string of clients we're waiting to upgrade here and I cannot in good conscience bring them forward until this issue is resolved.

-Dan

[Shogan]

Well I have an update:

After restarting that service on the server in question, and forcing the tape to eject, I got them to put another tape in, and tried running a small one hour long backup, with some files and the systemstate. Once this was done, I right clicked the RD1000 drive under my computer, and clicked Eject - this worked first time, without requiring me to restart the RDXMon service.

I am going to let the entire full backup run again tonight, and see if it works again in the morning though. If pressing the eject button on the drive tomorrow morning doesn't work, and right clicking - eject doesn't work, then I will ask them to unplug the USB cable and plug back in, just to see if that does work.

Will keep you guys updated here.

[Shogan]

Ok another update:

I just found another one of our recent installs, and saw it running BE 12.5, and also had an RD1000 with a 320GB cartridge. This client has not had any complaints about the tape not ejecting. So I went and checked the RDXMon version by looking at the service name, and this one has version 1.18 installed!

So I have just installed 1.18 on the other servers having this issue, and will test tomorrow morning to see if this fixes the issue.

[Barb_Grajewski]

I've got some other info to add, that may or may not be relevant. 

I've uninstalled ALL "search" tools from the Windows 2003 server that's running the backups and the drive.  Windows Search 4.0, even though it was told explicitly to EXCLUDE the RD1000 (F: in our case) drive, seems to hang on to the drive.  When outside of BE, if I'd push the eject button on the drive, and it would fail to eject, if I would then STOP the Windows Search service totally, the drive will eject from the previous button push.  This is the case with the Yahoo OmniFind Server search tool/service as well.

In addition, I had a small applet running in the background called "FolderSize" that would allow me to customize the Windows Explorer window to show folder sizes, ownership, file and folder children and so on.  I have to turn that OFF (runs as a service on startup) to be sure that the RD1000 will function reliably.

Still doing other kinds of troubleshooting.  I suppose some of these things I'm finding are pretty obvious, but no one has mentioned them yet as far as I can tell...  Hope it helps someone.

[CNS_Robert]

I'm unfortunately still having issues.  SBS2003, BE12d, RD1000.  I have uninstalled RDXmon v1.16 and reinstalled...no luck.  I have uninstalled RDXmon 1.16 and installed v1.12...no luck.  Appears only two options for this client to get an eject is stop/start RDXmon service and go through message prompts when using software eject or option 2 is just power cycle RD1000 and hit eject button.

Why do I always get the systems that don't behave!!!!!!!!!!!!   hahhaha

[Shogan]

Hi all, After installed RDXMon 1.18, I am still having the same issues. Tapes will not eject by any means, other than either :

A) Rebooting the server

B) Pulling the USB cable out

C) Powering off the RD1000 and then back on again.

This was on two different servers at two different locations running BE 12.5, and SBS 2003. Dell Poweredge servers.

[Joshua_Kane]

Hello:

Do you have the avaliability to allow me to remote into your machine and observe what is going on?

[Shogan]

PM Sent! I can arrange remote access next week from Monday onwards if possible.

[Shogan]

Any updates?

[Joshua_Kane]

I have none as of now, and I never received the PM you sent.

[Shogan]

Very strange... Re-sent the PM. I should have PM access shouldn't I? It wouldn't be disabled or anything now because I only have a few posts?

Anyway, hope you get it this time, otherwise contact me :

shogan85 ( a t ) gmail . com

[IT_SUpport_4U]

I had the same problem.

With process explorer i discover dat the file ese.dll is locked by the wmi process on the rd1000 drive.

When i killed that process eject is working.

I use rdxmon 1.12 backup-exec 12 with a rd1000.

Now i created a simple batch file with the following line.

taskkill /f /im wmiprvse.exe

This script is run after a back-up.

It is not the right way but it works for me and i discovered no other issues by killing this task.

But use it at your one risk.

[Barb_Grajewski]

I'm now having an amusing new problem with my RD1000 drive.  In the morning, for expediency, I've been trying to eject the tape with the button on the drive.  What I've found is that if the computer has been "locked" but I'm still logged in, I have to Unlock the computer before the tape will eject. 

I gotta say, this is some crazy stuff...

[Shogan]

I'd say its more like some crappy hardware / software from Symantec and/or Dell :\

I am still having issues.

I found some VBS script that will run and eject the tape, but most of the time it picks up the drive as in use, even though it isn't in use, and would need confirmation from a user before ejecting tape. I can't get the noob customers to login to the server and click ok each morning, so this still makes it impossible. If the server is rebooted, and then I run the VBS script, it ejects instantly. Fed up with this issue, I just want to delete Backup Exec and revert to NTBACKUP, or get a different Tape drive.

[Barb_Grajewski]

I set up my backup jobs to Eject after completion.  So, I go to the RD1000 the next morning and the cartridge has ejected itself.  I put a fresh cartridge, for tonight's job in the drive.  Come back half an hour late, and that cartridge has ejected itself!

So, after watching this for a few days, I find that the job finishes and ejects the cartridge, but if you put a new one in, that one gets ejected a minute or two later.  If you pop the cart back in, and then go look at the job monitor, in  a little while it starts running a backup job, even though the one last night ran okay, and the next job isn't due to run til tonight.  

I absolutely hate this version of BE, I absolutely hate using the RD1000 with it. 

[CNS_Robert]

I'm so happy I am not alone with this irritation.  My client that is experiencing this has been instructed to power cycle the RD1000 and then eject cartridge and insert new one.  It works 100% of the time.  Good bandaid fix for now.  Surprised this is puzzling everyone at Symantec.  Ya'd figure that Dell and Symantec would work this out.  Guess that is hopeful thinking.

I feel your pain Barb! 

[Barb_Grajewski]

Yeah, it's frustrating to see so many of us having problems that are somehow not reproducable at Symantec.

[Shogan]

Have you guys all installed SP1 for BE12.5?

One of my colleagues did this on one of the setups apparently affected by this problem and reports it is now working. I have yet to see it myself, but I did just install SP1 on another one of the setups and will contact the client this week to see if it has been working.

[jtatum]

Hi all,

We wanted to post here to provide an update on this issue and what we are doing to resolve it.

To restate the problem – customers are experiencing problems ejecting cartridges in the RD1000 (and similar devices from other vendors) after performing backups to them using Backup Exec.

There are not many commonalities to this issue. Some customers have the device configured as a backup-to-disk location. Some have it configured as a removable backup-to-disk location. Some are performing GRT backups and some are not.

Various solutions and workarounds have been posted. Cycling the power on the device will always be a workaround as it will cause the device to “forget” about the lock the Operating System has placed – however, it is not a particularly safe option. Pressing the eject button should cause the RDXmon driver to request an eject from the operating system and it seems the problem lies there. Some have resolved the issue by using a newer RDXmon driver. For others, it seems the OS will not eject the drive because some software is holding a file on it open. Virus scanners have been identified as the culprit in some cases. Search index tools, including the Index Service, Windows Search, and Google Desktop have held files open, preventing eject. A utility called Foldersize was a culprit for one customer. WMI, inexplicably, was identified as the cause in another case.

We have not ruled out problems in Backup Exec. We have this device in house and have run countless tests with 12.5 on Windows (both SBS and vanilla 2003) targeting this drive and have been able to reproduce only a subset of the behavior observed in the community. Discussions with the device OEM have led to changes that we hope to introduce into the next device driver installer for Backup Exec 12.5. However, given the diversity of the problem, we do not expect these changes to resolve all of the issues that cause cartridges to fail to eject.

We realize and deeply regret that some of you have been fighting with this problem for an unacceptable amount of time. This issue remains on our radar but given the number of possible causes that have already been identified, it doesn’t seem that there will be any simple universal solution. We will continue to work with the community in identifying these causes and addressing them as needed.

[Dandav]

I also have the eject problem.  HP RDX1000 Drive, Backup Exec 12.5, latest HP firmware and software.  Windows Small Business Server 2003.  Had the problem with 12 and upgraded to 12.5, but the problem still exists.  Opened an HP Support case and they ran diagnostics and several tests on the drive indicating there is no problem with their hardware.

[jtatum]

Hello,

I wanted to follow-up on a couple of items from my previous message.

First, an updated device driver installer has been released for Backup Exec 12.5 that may address some of these issues. It is available at:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/318328.htm

For those customers who are still struggling with ejecting cartridges, there is a utility from Microsoft that will list out processes holding a handle open to a drive. This may be useful for determining what is keeping the RD1000 from ejecting. The utility is at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx

If your RD1000 drive is E:, you can run handle.exe e:\ to get a list of processes with an open handle to the E: drive. Please let us know what results you see with this utility.

Thanks!