Unable to make Tape storage work with BE 2012

[Alan0001]

Hello,

We are trying to setup a BE 2012 ( evaluation version ) to allow data backups on to tape drives.

Running BE 2012 on windows 8 server.

We have a Dells PV LT2000 connected to the server via SAS interface. We have a Robotic library with 12 LTO6 tape drives .

Under Slots , I can see the tape drives labelled with barcode labels , however tape drives are showing "0 bytes capacity"

Things I have checked/done :

* Tape drivers are installed.

* Autochanger drives are native to Windows , hence shows Unknown Autochanger device in Device Manager

When i try to clean the Tape Drive , it gives error. Export/Import and "Inventory now" both give errors.

Before we installed Windows 8 on the server , it had linux with Baculla. I had labelled Tape drive then and ran some checks on the tape which were a success.

Post that we decided to drop Baculla and go ahead with BE 2012. However , I am unable to make tape work with BE 2012

Followed tape troubleshooting steps mentioned in the link and all seems to be fine.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH24414    

I am not sure if I missed out anything or the issue is due to using bacula on tape drives before putting then on BE 2012.

If yes , how do i change it default ?

I have attached screen shots in the thread.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks
 

[Jaydeep_S]

Running BE 2012 on windows 8 server.

This is not a supported configuration. Please install Backup Exec 2012 Media Server on a supported OS. Refer to the SCL for more details.

[Donald_Eady]

Unfortunately Windows 8 is not yet supported by backup exec. below you will find a link to the 2012 SCL 

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH175581

[Alan0001]

Hi ,

Pardon my ignorance .. it is Windows 2008 server .

[Donald_Eady]

Im unable to view the article that you were working from but below you will find a very good article on troubleshooting issues with robotic libraries/tape drives.. 

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

you say that you installed drivers for the drives "Are you talking about SYMC drivers or OEM?"

Verify this by running Tapeinst.exe

[Alan0001]

Hello Donald ,

SYMC drivers are installed

Please check the following output.

Removing the IDR CD-ROM burner driver (drvmcdb.sys) association for tape drives.
Updating Symantec inf file
Symantec device drivers are already installed
Tape0 [1,0,3,0] halfinch.sys SCSI\SequentialIBM_____ULT3580-HH6_____D2DB
Tape1 [1,0,4,0] halfinch.sys SCSI\SequentialIBM_____ULT3580-HH6_____D2DB
Installation complete.

I have verified the drivers under device manager as well.

Under Media Changer devices ,  device manager says "Unknown Media Changer" for which the driver provider is "microsoft"

[Larry_Fine]

That shows 2 tape drives.  I thought you said you had 12 tape drives?

What is your robotic library?  What interface?

What error are you getting on an inventory job?

[Donald_Eady]

Alan, 

       Would you mind DM'ng me your contact information ??

[Alan0001]

Donald , done :)

[Alan0001]

Hello Larry,

Let me clarify .

We have Tape library with 1 tape drive .
That Tape drive has 2 magazines each with 12 slots.
Right now we have 12 tape cartiages in those slots.
So that means I should see 2.27 GB * 12 as total space availble

Error i get when I try to run inventory is :

Final error: 0x1 - Incorrect function.
Final error category: Other ErrorsCompleted status: Failed
 

Library Identity : 3573-TL
Drive Identity : ULT3580-HH6
InterFace : SAS connected by 2 SAS cables

Regards,

Alan

[CraigV]

Hi,

1 of 3 things here:

1. That library is connected to an unsupported SAS card...you need to check your compability between the Dell tape library and the SAS card. It can't be a SAS RAID controller/card.

2. Download the Dell tape utility; stop the BE services and then run the diagnostic check against the drive to rule out hardware error.

3. If Bacula is still installed, either uninstall it or disable it completely. Restart the BE services and check again.

I'm also assuming you're using the BE device drivers for the tape drive, and the robotics shows up as Unknown Medium Changer in Device Manager, correct? You can verify that you're using the Symantec drivers for the drive by using tapeinst.exe.

Thanks!

[Alan0001]

Hello Craig,

Thanks

1.  SAS card is a NON-Raid card which supports Dell Tape drives. I have confirmed the same. 

It is 6 GBPS SAS HBA. I can see the tape drive connected to the SAS card under DELL OMSA

2. I am doing this now.

3. Bacula is not installed.

Tape drive drivers are BE and robotics is showing Unknow Media Changer . Confirmed via  Device Manager and tapeinst.exe

Regards,

Alan

[CraigV]

...have you tried to completely remove the drive from Windows Device Manager and then BE, and readd it after a server restart?

Thanks!

[Alan0001]

No I have not done that yet.

So this is what I will need to do .

* Stop BE services.

* Reboot Tape Library.

* Restart window server

* Start BE services

Correct ?

[CraigV]

No...

1. Delete library from BE, and then from Windows Device Manager.

2. Disconnect the library and restart it.

3. Restart Windows and let it boot. Once into Windows, check and make sure that no library shows up.

4. Shut down Windows, reconnect the library and then start up Windows.

5. Use tapeinst.exe to make sure the Symantec drivers are used. Might also want to check that there are no newer device drivers available.

Thanks!

[Larry_Fine]

Error i get when I try to run inventory is :

Final error: 0x1 - Incorrect function.
Final error category: Other ErrorsCompleted status: Failed

I would suggest activating the SCSI tracer, then run an inventory of one slot.  Tracer should give a better detail of what the incorrect function is.  I would speculate that there is some sort of hardware error or something is misconfigured as that is a popular library.

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

[Larry_Fine]

Tape0 [1,0,3,0] halfinch.sys SCSI\SequentialIBM_____ULT3580-HH6_____D2DB
Tape1 [1,0,4,0] halfinch.sys SCSI\SequentialIBM_____ULT3580-HH6_____D2DB

This indicates that the operating system & BE is "seeing" two tape drives.

We have Tape library with 1 tape drive .
InterFace : SAS connected by 2 SAS cables

If you only have one tape drive, why are you using two SAS cables?  Are they connecting 1 SAS HAB to 1 tape drive?  Unless you have a specific reason to using two cables, I would suggest changing to 1 cable.

[Alan0001]

Hello ,

* It might be showing 2 diff tape drives due to 2 SAS cables.
* Usually the same happens if we use Multipath with iSCSI. You see 2 drives wtih different WWID's.
* Tracer is not showing any errors.     

I tried to start a backup to tape and also ran inventory . Inventory failed however backup job
shows status as Queued , even though no other jobs are running on the Tape.

All trace events showed "Driver Result                           STATUS_SUCCESS"

We have 1 HBA connected to Tape via 2 SAS cables. I guess that is not the right thing to do unless we have 2 HBA.

Ex.

Event:       209  Start:  7:45:35.138  Stop:   7:45:35.139  Duration:  0.001000
SCSI Address: 01:00:03:00 [IBM     ULT3580-HH6     1068012675]
Function                                SRB_FUNCTION_EXECUTE_SCSI
SCSI Status                             SCSISTAT_GOOD
Sense Length                            0
Data Length                             12
Driver Result                           STATUS_SUCCESS

Raw CDB
1A 00 00 00 0C 00                               ......

CDB Operation                           MODE_SENSE6
 LUN                                    0
 DBD                                    False
 Page Code                              Current Values(0)
 Alloc Length                           12
 Control                                0x00
Data
0B 68 10 08 5A 00 00 00 00 01 00 00             .h..Z.......

Might need to disable 1 connector to see if that fixes the problem. 

[Larry_Fine]

* Tracer is not showing any errors.     

I tried to start a backup to tape and also ran inventory . Inventory failed

I find it very surprising that an inventory job will fail and yet tracer doesn't show any errors.  Can you post the trace.bin and the inventory job log (in .mht format)?

[Alan0001]

Hello Larry,

I shall update with these details  .

For now we are going to try multipathing with tapes. ( Although I am not sure if tapes will support MPIO yet )

I suspect we are seeing this issue due to multiple paths to the Tape library .

Will update in few hours from now.

Thanks

Alan