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Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

 
Mike Galbicka
Occasional Advisor

Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

I installed four of these units in four different servers in 2006. Three were installed in January and one in June of that year. They perform full backups every week day using Data Protector 5.5 fully patched and have performed flawless until just recently. Two of the older ones began ejecting tapes and flashing Drive and/or Tape lights during the normal tape load. Usually subsequent loads will eventually take and the backup operation will complete as normal. Support tickets (attached) show fatal head calibration errors and LTO drive assessment tests report the same and indicate the drive is no longer recommended for use.

What are my options? Are the backups reliable? Are they repairable or do they just need to replaced? Is this a normal lifespan for this drive and should I expect the other two to fail soon?
8 REPLIES 8
Mike Galbicka
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

second support ticket attached
Mike Galbicka
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

Might help to specify Model 448.
Vernny
Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

Hello Mike, I hope you're doing well.

If you would like to be sure that drives are not longer recommended for use, you can try doing this:
- Clean 2 times the LTO448 Drives
- If possible, use different SCSI Cables
- Update tape drive driver
- Run a 2 times LTO Drive Assesment Test with new media
- If they failed again, use the same media but on the other 2 working drives, only to check if error was caused by a failed cartridge

I saw your Support Ticket and it has the latest FW S65D, was reporting that drive is overheating so you can try touching the drive to double if fans are working fine or if tape chassis is warmed (if is external tape drive)

Lifespan can vary depending of the enviroment, there is no specific life time for a Tape Drive, but tape cartridge yes, it has a limit.

With your symptoms, I would say that drives would need to be replace at the end.


Regards,

Vernny D.
Mike Galbicka
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

I should have mentioned - all tapes work fine in two other good drives and new tapes have same problems in bad drives.
Vernny
Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

Hi,

In this case you can try doing this and if still fails then I would say that you got bad tape drives:

- Clean 2 times the LTO448 Drives
- If possible, use different SCSI Cable
- Update tape drive drivers
- Update HBA drivers
- Run a 2 times LTO Drive Assesment Test with new media

Thanks,
Vernny D.
king_william
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

after analyse the support ticket i suggest to replace the tape drive because the fan of ur drive is hs through this log(from l&tt):
|__ Cartridge Environment
||__ Current temperature in drive : 43.5 C - Good margin
||__ Maximum temperature in last 3 drives : 59.8 C - Warning, above maximum
||__ Minimum temperature in last 3 drives : 39.9 C - Great margin
after replace the drive you should update the version of the driver of your tapedrive to maximise the transfert data rate
Mike Galbicka
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

These drives have their own internal fans which could be failing?
king_william
Occasional Advisor

Re: Ultrium 2 Internal Scsi drive failures

yes i think that the problem is hardware even if you update the driver of the tapedrive