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Re: Quantum DLT7000 DP5.1 Tapes go "poor" frequently

 
Frank Schifferstein
Occasional Contributor

Quantum DLT7000 DP5.1 Tapes go "poor" frequently

hi folks,
maybe you can help us out.
Is there a good explanation/reason why tapes go "poor" on DP 5.1 when used with the mentioned library ? Drives are already replaced shortly, even when using new tapes they go "poor" after first time usage. Is there a recommendation concerning manufactorer of tapes.... any brand recommended ?
THX
:)
2 REPLIES 2
Stuart Whitby
Trusted Contributor

Re: Quantum DLT7000 DP5.1 Tapes go "poor" frequently

I wouldn't recommend any specific brand, but you may find you get better success with one brand than another. The prime example that I've seen of this was library where the use of any Fuji tape would result in the drive cleaning light coming on, despite these being new tapes and the drives cleaned recently. Using Maxell tapes here worked perfectly.

Tapes are generally marked poor after errors though. Does any other system have access to this drive? (generally through a fibre connection) If so, it may be issuing SCSI resets resulting in errors. If another application grabs the tape drive, same result.

Not sure on your OS, but if it's HP 11, then I'd recommend using *both* ST_SAN_SAFE and ... umm ... the SCSI reserve setting in the kernel. I'd also remove all other access paths to these drives temporarily, leaving only the /dev/rmt entry configured within DP. This ensures that no other application can grab the drive via another control path. I'm not sure whether that would be possible or not, but this will minimise the chance. Try that for a week or so and see if any tapes go bad. If not, you know it's helped.
A sysadmin should never cross his fingers in the hope commands will work. Makes for a lot of mistakes while typing.
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor

Re: Quantum DLT7000 DP5.1 Tapes go "poor" frequently

Hi,

DataProtector always mark a media as poor if there has been any problem when writing to the media. The may be a faulty media, a drive problem, SCSI problem or if applicable, a SAN problem.

Do you get any cleaning requests from the drive ? If a drive frequently request for cleaning the drive may be near end of life.

Also, check DP and OS patches, cabling, terminators etc.

DLT media is normally very reliable, it seems very unlikley to me that you shold get several faulty medias in a short time.