topic Re: Ultrium tape problem in Operating System - HP-UX

Ultrium tape problem

Sanjay Yugal Kishore Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:20:37 GMT

Hello,

I have connected a new HP Ultrium 1-SCSI tape drive an rp3440 system running with HP-UX 11iv3 Spetember 2008 release.
Whenever I try to run pax, dd or tar on any of the tape device files it gives the followin errors -
With tar:
# tar cvf /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST /tmp/ifile
a /tmp/ifile 6 blocks
Tar: end of tape
Tar: to continue, enter device/file name when ready or null string to quit.

User entered a null name for next device file.
# dd if=/dev/rtape/tape1_BEST of=/tmp/ofile2
dd read error: I/O error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
# tar tvf /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST
Tar: tape read error

With dd:
# dd of=/dev/rtape/tape1_BEST if=/tmp/ifile bs=512
I/O error
4+0 records in
3+1 records out
# dd if=/dev/rtape/tape1_BEST of=/tmp/ofile2
dd read error: I/O error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

With pax:
x1131pa02# pax -w -f /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST /tmp/ifile
pax: write : I/O error
pax: A write error has occurred.
x1131pa02# pax -f /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST
pax: The archive is empty.

Please advice.

Thanks,
Sanjay

Re: Ultrium tape problem

Sanjay Yugal Kishore Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:35:35 GMT

I have attached the dmesg output as well.

Re: Ultrium tape problem

Sanjay Yugal Kishore Ha — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:45:51 GMT

ooops!! attached now.

Re: Ultrium tape problem

VK2COT — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:48:52 GMT

Hello,

a) We did not get your dmesg attachment.
Maybe it gives us more clues.

b) Apart from that, check these:

# ioscan -fnC tape (tape drive must be CLAIMED)

# ioscan -m lun

# diskinfo /dev/rtape/tape1

# mt -f /dev/rtape/tape1 rewind
# mt -f /dev/rtape/tape1 status

c) It is possible that the tape drive is
faulty or the tape itself is faulty too.

Also, try to use device /dev/rtape/tape1.
Maybe your DSF /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST was not
created correctly?

Cheers,

VK2COT

Re: Ultrium tape problem

VK2COT — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:53:53 GMT

You are having SCSI resets on bus 0/2/1/0/4/1.
Could even be improperly terminated tape drive.

Cheers,

VK2COT

Re: Ultrium tape problem

Joelmel Roche — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:03:26 GMT

Hi, try to remove terminator. external HP Ultrium tape drive is no need to terminate.

BR,

Re: Ultrium tape problem

Sanjay Yugal Kishore Ha — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:56:41 GMT

Thank you all for the suggestions. I did a rechecked the connections and did a power cycle on the tape drive, followed by ioscan and insf.
Problem was resolved after I replaced the SCSI cable to the tape drive.