Using a HP Ultrium (Gen1) to read tapes from a HP 215

[Phil Park_1]

I'm using a HP Ultrium 215 with backup Exec 9.1 w/ hardware compression and was moving around 30 GB of data to a different network. I tried to restore backup db files using a HP SureStore 1/9 with the same backup software, with three different backup copies/tapes. (I have moved smaller files >1GB).

One tape I could read the file catalog, but it failed to read the files (9). I tried three times and it failed in the same location ~9.2GB. The other tapes failed to read the tape's catalog. The tape were compressed 1.6 to 2.46, the one that almost worked was 2.2.

I changed the Backup method to 'Software only' in backup Exec and I can move data between the two networks OK. The rate of compression ~ 1.65. I ran the diagnostics on both tape units and received two errors on the SureStore 1/9
1) Wouldn't install current firmware on the Ultrium 1 - but firmware is the current version for the product and
2) The acceptance test gave the following error - incorrect CM buffer length; log sense command (logpage2) failed; Byte 2 0x6 SenseCode 0x29 Sense Qual 0x0.
(note - this was a new tape so I don't know if that caused the CM error?)

My Question is - Are these two unit compatible in 'hardware compression' mode or is there a problem with one of my tape units?

[Dave Dewar · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes the 2 units are fully write/read compatible, irrespective of the state of hardware compression. Both are Ultrium 1 tape drives.

I don't know whether one of you drives has a problem based on the info you have posted so far.

What errors did BackupExec actually give you when you were trying to perform these restores? There could be a variety of causes to your problem and without more error information it is difficult to suggest a likely cause.

Your point 1, when you say wouldn't upgrade firmware, what do you mean? did the upgrade fail in some way? were you not given an option to upgrade? What version of firmware do you have in your product and what were you trying to download?
Your point 2, what brand of media are you using?

If you can generate support tickets for each of these drives and attach them to a message in this thread that would be helpful in debugging your issues.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar

[Phil Park_1]

Dave,

Thank you for the reply.

The error I received during the DB.bak file restore (using Backup Exec) occurred during the verification part of the tape restore, it was a check sum error. The DB file was present on the disk drive, so I thought I would try the SQL restore of the file it did download. This file failed to "restore" the SQL database, this was expected.
I've attached the result log from the tests a ran on the Autoloader 1/9. The HP 215 passed all the test. I will attach the Ticket in the next reply. The tapes I am using for testing are HP C7971A 100/200GB Ultrium 1 LTO tapes (some are new). I did cleaned the heads after the first couple of failures, because the tape was indicating hard read errors during the restore process.

Each tape (3) had 5 to 15 hard read errors after the restore where there was zero before.(hp tapes)

[Phil Park_1]

Dave,

Here is a copy of the ticket. The firmware versions currently on my tape system are 2600 for the Autoloader and E3BR for the reader. The file I've downloaded for the firmware update is 'LTT_Ultrium_1-SCSI_E3BR_OEM2.frm (file name)' and this was the file I was trying to use.

Phil Park

[Dave Dewar]

Hi Phil,

There is no ticket attached to previous message. LTO tickets are over 1MB so it would be good if you can zip it up first before attaching.

Looked through your test log, things looked ok, there did seem to be some read errors logged but the write/read part of the acceptance test appears to have passed. One thing I did note was that you SCSI interface appears to be configured in narrow mode at 10MB/s, won't be the cause of your issue but is not helping performance.

You are using the latest firmware E3BR on your autoloader with a Ultrium 230 in it, you dont mention what firmware you have in your Ultrium 215, N27D is the latest for your variant.

A support ticket for each unit would be very helpful.

Cheers,

Dave Dewar