Tape drive offline when trying to backup

[Smartsysnv]

Backup Exec 2010 SBS edition - 13.0 rev 2896

This is from the job monitor log:

Final error: 0xe000810c - Physical Volume Library Drive not available. Final error category: Backup Device Errors For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-33036

This happens random, sometimes backups work for a week and then fail every day and I need to bring the tape device manually online.

This is our setup:

HP DL380 G6

HP P212 raid controller only serving the tapedevice.

HP storageworks 920 rackmodel

I've no clue and as far as I know the HW is supported by Symantec.

I watched other threads where people say the a raid controller is not supported by Symantec. But I checked the Symantec site and the P212 is supported.

Any help appreciated because I cannot log a ticket at Symantec because the site generate errors in every browser I tried.(when submitting a ticket)

rgds,

[Munir2Fast]

Hi

Tape drive connect to a raid controller is not supported, please refer to the below link for more information :

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH44233

[Smartsysnv]

P212 is supported by Symantec:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH70907

I think this can be the solution: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/physical-volume-library-drive-not-available-2

[CraigV]

Hi Smartsysnv,

Technically you are right, but also wrong. That card is supported by Symantec, but only for disk. So if your backups were only going to disk, or to disk first, you would have no issues.

If you check the HP QuickSpecs link below, there is no mention of it supporting tape drives at all.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13203_na/13203_na.pdf

Check the link on the HP site below, and see if you can find the card you need...

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/za/en/sm/WF08a/15351-15351-3328412-241475-241475-3884082.html

Cheers!

[Smartsysnv]

If you check the HP QuickSpecs link below, there is no mention of it supporting tape drives at all.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13203_na/13203_na.pdf

Copy/pasted directly from the doc:

LTO Ultrium Tape Drives

HP StorageWorks LTO-2 Ultrium 448 SAS Internal Tape Drive DW085A

HP StorageWorks LTO-2 Ultrium 448 SAS External Tape Drive DW086A

HP StorageWorks LTO-3 Ultrium 920 SAS Internal Tape Drive EH847A

HP StorageWorks LTO-3 Ultrium 920 SAS External Tape Drive EH848A

HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 SAS Internal Tape Drive EH919A

HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 SAS External Tape Drive EH920A

HP StorageWorks 1U SAS Rack-Mount Kit with one LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 EH946A

HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 SAS Internal Tape Drive EH860A

HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1840 SAS External Tape Drive EH861A

Still getting the offline error :\

[CraigV]

...but not in BE...that is where it counts.

I obviously didn't read down far enough in the HP doc...sorry about that!

[Smartsysnv]

CraigV

Point me towards an official Symantec document that says my HW is not supported.

I've read many threads with the same issues and as far as I know its a Symantec issue.

No problems detected with HP storageworks...

I will run the debugtool from Symantec and post some info in here.

[CraigV]

Check the link you mentioned. Symantec say that generally RAID cards aren't supported, and although the link shows your card IS supported, if you're not able to get it working currently, where do you think your problem lies?

You've ascertained that the card supports a tape drive on the HP QuickSpecs (shot for pointing that out to me when I didn't read down far enough), and that Symantec supports the card.

If you try running an NTBackup job to that device with all the BE services stopped, does it complete succesfully?

Couple of other things to consider doing:

1. Update your BE DDI drivers for the tape drive. Run the Device Configuration Wizard from within BE and install the Symantec drivers.

2. Update the firmware & drivers for the RAID card from HP's website.

3. Get hold of HP's LTT (Library & Tape Tools) utility, and run a couple of diagnostic checks against the drive. This is going to pick up if you have any physical hardware errors on the drive. If you do, see if you can replace it.

Laters!

[Smartsysnv]

Most of our customers are backing up with HP's raid cards if its a SAS tape drive.

Never experienced a problem with them. The backups ran fine for 5 months and then it was starting to show offline when trying to do an inventory job or at the end of a backup job.

NTBackup is not supported for SBS2008. So I tried HP backup software that come with the tapedevice and I've not experienced any problems.

1. Already did this, Symantec drivers are installed.

2. Next step to do.

3. I already updated the tape drive with HP LTT tools and run a diagnostic check (Symantec services disabled) and everything reported fine.

If point 2 cannot resolve the problems I am facing, I will install the 2010R2 version.

grtz.

[Smartsysnv]

I ran a diagnostic check from Symantec tool:

Name:	Symantec SCSI Tape/Changer Log Driver
Type:	Kernel Driver

Status	Setting	Default	Actual
Error	State	Stopped	Running
Ok	Start Type	Demand Start	Demand Start
Ok	Log On As	LocalSystem	LocalSystem
Ok	Exit Code		The operation completed successfully.

Did not found anything on the Symantec support site about this error.

Found some more events in the eventviewer:

Log Name:      System

Source:        LSI_SAS

Date:          10/11/2010 23:26:52

Event ID:      129

Task Category: None

Level:         Warning

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      SBS2008

Description:

Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

  <System>

    <Provider Name="LSI_SAS" />

    <EventID Qualifiers="32772">129</EventID>

    <Level>3</Level>

    <Task>0</Task>

    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>

    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-11-10T22:26:52.106Z" />

    <EventRecordID>469825</EventRecordID>

    <Channel>System</Channel>

    <Computer>SBS2008.ETANCOBNL.LOCAL</Computer>

    <Security />

  </System>

  <EventData>

    <Data>\Device\RaidPort0</Data>

    <Binary>0F001800010000000000000081000480040000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000040000810004800000000000000000</Binary>

  </EventData>

</Event>

[CraigV]

OK, had NO idea you were using SBS 2008.

So if the upgrade of the firmware/drivers to your SAS card didn't work, there is also the chance that the cable can be faulty. Don't ask me why, I have seen this happen with a SCSI cable that hadn't been moved in months!

See if you can replace the card, and whether or not you get the same error. If not, put the old cable back.

Other things to check include: that your services don't go offline in BE; that an AV isn't blocking your BE services from running correctly; uninstall the device completely out of SBS 2008 and BE 2010, and then reinstall after a reboot.

[Smartsysnv]

I'll update this thread next year. Client well be on holiday for 2 weeks.