Problems with MSL5026SL SDLT Tapes going bad

[Jeff Hulderman]

I have 4 MSL5026SL systems that report bad SDLT tapes on a frequent basis. By frequent I mean a once or twice a month per site. Two of the sites have had the SDLT drives replaced but the problems still continue. I've changed tape manufacturers from Quantum to Maxell with no noticeable difference. Is this an isolated problem I'm having or has anyone else had these same kind of problems? Help...


Thank You

Jeff

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Jeff,
just my guess.... What's common between Quantum and Maxwell tapes in your environment?
- you use the same drives;
- you use the same place for tape storage.
So I'm concerned about environment - temperature, humidity, dust, magnetic fields. One more factor: I remember it was not recommended to leave tapes in drives after backup is done (I wonder if this rule applies to these tapes). Do you clean drives as they ask to do it? Replace expired cleaning tapes in time?
Generally I do not believe that all 4 libraries and all the tapes you're using are faulty. There should be common factor which causes these problems
Hope it helps
Eugeny

[Jeff Hulderman]

Good questions. All 4 libraries are in clean, cool areas. Since they're libraries the tapes stay in the magazines. As far as cleaning the drives I let the Libray clean itself when necessary. I too have a hard time believing that all those tapes are going bad. I've even had brand new ones have the errors.


Thanks

Jeff

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Ok Jeff,
more guesses... if you do not see difference here maybe you can dig into firmware - check if firmware is latest for autochanger and drives, try HP LTT http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50128.html . Can you try HP tape(s) http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/media/tapebackup_media/superdlt/index.html to see if it will change anything? Is this library fc-al (fibre channel arbitrated loop) connected? I remember someone was telling that when doing backup if LIP (loop initialization primitive) occurs it causes tape to rewind, and sometimes backup utility does not notice it and continuing writing data at the beginning of tape overwriting all headers and directories
Eugeny

[Claude Beaudry]

I had similar experiences with Quantum, Compaq and Maxell SDLT cartridges.

We use Quantum Tape library and Compaq external SDLT 110/220 drives in a controlled climate server room.

When a SDLT tape cartridege ends up to fail and goes bad we tried to reuse it in various ways in other SDLT tape drives unsuccessfully and these tapes seem OK when inspected but are totally unreusable.

The failures happened with brand new tapes to tapes which we used maybe 20 times whitin 6 months, on some the locking mechanism would not release from the spool so the tape could not even load in the drive.

At this point, I really ask myself if this is a Beta technology, because I never experienced this type of problem with regular DLT tapes.

We are currently using another brand (Fuji) which took us a while before we could purchase them as they were listed but not available. So far we did not have any Fuji tapes fail on us but it may be a little early to conclude.

One thing we can say is that we will not buy anymore Quantum or Compaq SDLT cartridges for quite a while, as we went through way too much problems with these and we are tired of returning them and get in return more faulty tapes.

We are also looking at any solution to this type of situation as it is very important to rely on our backup solution.

Claude

[Saulius_1]

Hi,

What software you are using for backup ? And how you decide that tape is gona bad ?

Just wondering, because we have an software problem, which just marks pretty good SDLT tapes as "bad".

Saulius

[Adam Willett]

Hi,

I also have the same problem but with a MSL5052s2 Library. We have Fujifilm and HP SDLT tapes. I have 16 tapes so far gone bad over the coarse of 3/4 months. My Library is Fibre attached to a Proliant DL380 through a Compaq storage switch 2/8-EL, then into the Compaq network storage router E1200 in the back of the library. We use Data Protector 5.1. When a bad tape occurs I get the following message:

[Major] From: BMA@SERVERlafarge.com "LIB1-SDLT-Drive1" Time: 01/07/2004 20:30:07
[90:51] scsi4:1:0:2C
Cannot write to device (Medium error.)

[Critical] From: OB2BAR@SERVERlafarge.com "SERVER" Time: 01/07/2004 20:30:07
Received ABORT request from SM => aborting.

[Critical] From: OB2BAR@hpd4.gb.aggregates.lafarge.com "SERVER" Time: 01/07/2004 20:30:07 15

[Critical] From: OB2BAR@SERVERlafarge.com "hpd4_1" Time: 01/07/2004 20:30:07 15

[Major] From: BMA@SERVER.lafarge.com "LIB1-SDLT-Drive1" Time: 01/07/2004 20:30:07
[90:161] Cannot write filemark. (Medium error.)


These tapes are also brand new.
I get the same/similar error when the tape is verified from DP5.1
When the tape is expired I can format it and use it again.

I currently have a call open with HP Support.
I would be grateful of any info anybody can provide.


Thanks

[clay bowman]

Download Library and Tape Tools from the HP site, stop all the backup services and start L&TT, run a support ticket and open the ticket from within L&TT expand all, look towards the bottom of the page for A501 write errors. There is a possibility the tape drives are damaging the tapes. Quantum released some 110/220 drives with drive heads out of tolerance.