Symantec backup exec 2010 R3, tape drive keeps going offline

[Sambhi92]

Hello,

I have a tandberg data storagelibary t24 with one LTO4 drive, and everytime i try to do a backup, it fails and gets the error "Storage device reported ab error on a request to write data to media" and my tape drive keeps going offline.

I;ve phoned up tandberg and they've said it could be a remote managment application that could be causing it to crash, does anyone know how to solve this issue or had this issue before?

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Harpal

[CraigV]

Hi,

Tandberg should have some sort of device utility that you can download and run against the drive. This will rule out any hardware issues.

You need to stop the BE services before doing so. Report back once you have...

Thanks!

[Larry_Fine]

What kind of interface & HBA (SCSI, SAS, etc)?  Make sure it is not a RAID HBA.

Has this worked reliably in the past?

Here is some good troubleshooting info:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH24414

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH49432

[Sambhi92]

Thanks for the responese, the tandberg hardware isn't faulty as i've run driver and lib tests to see, it was working fine for about 2 years (thats how long i've been at company for) , then in about january this year it just stopped working and everytime i do a back up i get that error.

I've replaced the drive and also the library, i've installed the symantec drives on the tape drive but still nothing?

Also using fibre going from tandberg to FC switch.

Cheers guys.

Sambhi

[lmosla]

Hello Sambhi,  Check Windows Events for System Event errors: Event ID's 5,7,9,11,15 point to hardware/scsi errors.

[Sambhi92]

Hi,

I get the event error ID 15, say "the device, \device\changer1, is not ready for access yet".

Is there anything anyone can recommmend to help with the issue?

Cheers,

Sambhi

[CraigV]

Hi,

What OS is this? If its Win2K3, make sure that the Removable Storage service is stopped and disabled.

Have you also made sure there isn't an issue with the card the library attaches too? The Tandberg utility might have a write test. Erase a tape through the utility, stop the BE services, and try a write test. If it still fails, then it's 1 of 3 things: the library, the tapes, or the adapter! BE has effectively been taken out of the equation.

Thanks!

[Sambhi92]

Hi all,

Sorry for the late reply. The OS is windows server 2008 so no RSS installed. We still have this problem, but i have spoken with Tandberg and they say it could be an issue with our fibre switch that the tandberg is going into. When i changed the port on the fibre switch the tandberg couldnt even be found on the Backup exec server, so i'm wondering if theres an issue on the fibre switch.

Kind regards,

Sambhi

[Larry_Fine]

When i changed the port on the fibre switch the tandberg couldnt even be found on the Backup exec server, so i'm wondering if theres an issue on the fibre switch.

If you cannot see a device at all, either the switch/switchport is bad or the switch is zoned.  Is your FC switch zoned?

[CraigV]

...when you changed the port on the FC switch did you rezone the library to the media server?

Thanks!

[Sambhi92]

IT wouldnt even show up in device manager so i couldnt rezone it.

[CraigV]

rezoning comes first...then a device rescan in Windows Device Manager which means your OS sees the device on the new port.

Not the other way around...

[Jon_Riesberg]

Gents,

I have the same problem.  Tandberg Storage Loader 7818-LTO (LTO6), SAS interface (with ATTO ExpressSAS Card ESAS-H680), directly attached to the Dell (via SAS cable) DL2200 running BE 2010 R3.  Tandberg troubleshooting utilities run fine - tape mounts, writes, erases fine.  I ran a "duplicate to tape" job and wrote over 1tb of data to the tape without issue.  Tape device shows online after the job completes, but when I run a subsequent job, the tape drive goes off-line and will not stay online until I restart the BE services and restart the job.  This is a new Storageloader, so I have no reason to suspect the tape drive.  I have a 3535-LTO at another site that  I can try (to see if I get the same problem), but I don't have it with me today.  I have had the DL2200 for a year and a half, but this is the first time I have a tape drive attached to it.  Any ideas?

I should add that I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2.

I should also add that when I check the windows event log, I see 58053 errors ("the drive hardware is offline").  I also see a fair number of APNMCP "Information" (Event ID 0) events as well, but I don't think they're related to this problem.  Other than this, the event log is pretty clean. 

[IslipWCL]

I resign myself to being told that the problem is either the new HP LTO4 drive, the new HP LTO4 tape or anything other than a Symantec acknowledgement of responsibility and interest in identifying a solution, but I have a very similar problem with the LTO4 drive going 'off line'. The HP diagnostics pass it 100% - but then it is new!

I have been using the same setup with LTO2 and LTO3 drives with BE11d for 4-5 years and more recently 2010 R3, and experienced occasional 'off line' errors, but generally worked very well.

Starting with the LTO 4 drive and everthing 'on line' from the previous night's successful job completion, a tape that has been used before totally successfully, a drive that shows a total of 10 soft read errors (no other read or write errors), using the current Symantec drivers, Server 2008 R2 (fully updated) and BE 2010 R3 (fully updated), the drive will go offine if either an 'Inventory' or 'Backup' is attempted.

The errors are either 'media not recognised' or 'Physical Volume Library Drive not available'. The media is the same one that backed up perfectly well the night before and the drive connections are the same as the night before as well - nothing has changed.

Stopping and restarting all the BE services manually will bring the drive back on line and allow the backup to proceed normally, with the drive remaining on line after the successfull conclusion of the job. Leaving everything completely alone, including the same tape will result in the drive going off line immediately the job comes round to the next scheduled start.

2 nights ago I scheduled a script that stopped and restarted the services 5 minutes before the backup job was scheduled to start and it started and ran successfully - why?

Tonight I have swapped the tape for the next in sequence (the tape has been used 1-2 times before) and it has gone through the same sequence and started the backup with no 'off line' excursions.

If Symantec reply to this post please recognise that there are many, many similar posts to this one and one common feature - Symantec BE software is being used!