backup problems

[Martin Wells]

Most nights our backup works fine but every so often we get the following errors and the backup fails

FTIO: Could not opn /dev/tty for output: No such device or address
FTIO: Redirecting output to standard error

The tape drive needs to be powered off and on and then the backup can be restarted and will complete OK.

We have had the drive replaced twice in the last six months. Can anyone help?

p.S. This thread has been moved from General to Tape Libraries and Drives. - Hp Forum Moderator

[David Ruska]

Some more info would help.

What type of tape drive are you using, what version of firmware, which unix version, etc?

[Martin Wells]

David,

We have a DLT8000 and are running HPUX 11.

Thanks

[David Ruska]

I assume this is a standalone DLT8K drive (HP version).

If so, you can use Support Tools Manager to check the firmware version (using the INFORMATION tool). You can also use STM to update firmware. The current standalone version of DLT8000 firmware is V80.

The library version of DLT firmware for STM is available on the external website, but the standalone version is currently not. We plan to rectify that in the next few days, and the firmware will be available under the 'download drivers and software' section. In you need the firmware sooner, let me know and I can email it to you.

Note: You do NOT need an STM password to upgrade tape drive firmware.

There is also a beta version of Library & Tape Tools (our windows diagnostic) for HP-UX which runs in a command line shell, but STM may be easier to use if you are already familiar with it.

New firmware may or may not solve your problem, but it makes sense to start there. See the following URL for a problem with firmware <>http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg75068.html

[Martin Wells]

The DLT is in a L2000 server.

I have looked at the drive in stm but the firmware version is blank?

[David Ruska]

In xstm, yould should get a dialog similar to the following (except with 8000 instead of 7000):

Device Qualifier: QUANTUMDLT7000
Product ID: DLT7000 Hardware Path: 10/8.5.0
Device Type: SCSI Tape Logical Unit Number: 0
Vendor: QUANTUM Product Rev Level: 2150
Firmware Major Version: 80 Firmware Minor Version: 0
Read Errors Corrected: 0 Read Errors Uncorrected: 0
Write Errors Corrected: 0 Write Errors Uncorrected: 0
Tape Motion Hours: 0 Power On Hours: 1530
Read Compression Ratio: 1.0 : 1 Write Compression Ratio: 1.0 : 1

The Firmware Major Version: 80 indicates V80 firmware.

What output do you get from the information tool?

I'm assuming by 'in your L2000' you mean this is a rack mount drive. The HP rack mount and standalone drives use the same firmware.

[Martin Wells]

David the output is

-- Information Tool Log for SCSI Tape on path 0/5/0/0.3.0 --

Log creation time: Fri May 3 08:39:31 2002

Hardware path: 0/5/0/0.3.0


Device Qualifier: QUANTUMDLT8000
Product ID: DLT8000 Hardware Path: 0/5/0/0.3.0
Device Type: SCSI Tape Logical Unit Number: 0
Vendor: QUANTUM Product Rev Level: 0250
Firmware Major Version: 80 Firmware Minor Version: 0
Read Errors Corrected: 3 Read Errors Uncorrected: 0
Write Errors Corrected: 4991 Write Errors Uncorrected: 0
Tape Motion Hours: 230 Power On Hours: 1289
Read Compression Ratio: 1.52 : 1 Write Compression Ratio: 1.52 : 1
Compression Status: Enabled
Serial Number: PKC01P0297
Drive Status: Good

Thanks.

[Jan Klier]

It looks like your firmware is up to date (V80).

Please use the beta version of HP L&TT and generate a support ticket, and send it to ltt_team@hp.com. This will allow us to review the contents of the error logs of the drive.

You can download HP L&TT on the external web site by going to the software & drivers section of tape drives or tape libraries.

[David Ruska]

As Jan mentioned, your firmware is up to date.

STM can pull the device error logs, however it dumps them in hex format only, which makes it unusable (unless you have a script to decode them).

With LTT, the drive logs are easily viewable. You could mail us the support ticket to review, but you can also review the logs yourself. From the main menu, select the drive (e.g. "device 1" if the DLT drive is device 1), then type "support". In the support tool, you can then type "view", and review the device logs. You will find a 'drive error log'. The last entries in the log will be the most recent. There is a POH (power-on hours) field, which tells you when the error occured. You can compare this with the current POH, to determine which error (or errors) occurred when your backup failed.