"Device not ready" + "invalid element address"

[_1]

??Hi,
I have a surestore 1/20 c7200nb tape library (single dlt8000 drive in it). Fairly regularly, but in a random pattern I am getting "device not ready" error. This happens sometimes at the begining of a back up job and sometimes in the middle of a job. anyone else get this or know what is causeing this?

Also every time I perform an inventory I will receive the message "invalid element address" in the back up log file.

I am using Veritas back up exec for win nt 2000 + server version 8.5 on a windows 2000 Dell poweredge server. The tape library is attached to an adaptec 29160 scsi card and is set to scsi id 1 (scsi card is id 7) veritas confirms the id number of the library.

If anyone can shed some light on these issues I would be most grateful, even if it just gives me a few more options to try.

Regards,

JJ

P.S. I tried a search of the forum and it came back no results.....

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Only advice I can give here is to make sure you have the latest firmware for the library and the drive installed - If you have HP support then get HP to do the firmware upgrades as they can be a little fraught...

HTH

Duncan

[#3]

Updated everything I could think of. Thanks for the help, but still the same errors.

[Breider]

JJ,
Has this ever worked successfully, or has it been like this since day one? Also, you mentioned this is on Veritas BE 8.5 for 2000, when you installed BE, did you let it claim the devices, or is it sharing with w2k RSM? Have you attempted to use RSM backups before? One thing to check is: Right click My Computer and choose Manage. Open "Storage", then "Removable Storage". Open "Physical Locations" and delete any dead entries (entries with red X's on them).
If you didn't integrate with RSM, you might also look in device manager and make sure there are no MS drivers loading for the tape drive, or the library (should be "Unknown" tape library as that model isn't recognized by default. If these drivers are there, right click them and "disable" them.

-Barry Reider

[#5]

Thanks for the valuable info Barry, I have looked at the mentioned items. The medium changer is unknown in the device manager and I have disabled the rsm service and checked for dead entries in physical locations. The only thing that I can see that may be wrong is a driver in device manager for the DLT tape drive, however if I disable this the changer does not respond to commands from Veritas i.e. inventory check. Is the problem caused by the changer using the veritas drivers and the tape drive being controlled by the MS drivers (do MS drivers take priority)??

Thanks for your efforts they are appreciated.

[Breider]

I'm not sure if there's an easy way to tell, but it sounds like you may have installed with RSM support. In this case you do want RSM services running, and I'm not sure whether BE provides new drivers or not, although I believe they do. You may want to check out their website, I know BE 8.6 is out (3878 is the latest build I know of). I believe there are some tape driver patches out from Veritas as well....

-Barry Reider

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

Try these links,

http://us-support2.external.hp.com/cki/bin/doc.pl/sid=0bbeaf33135c15ffd4/screen=ckiDisplayDocument?docId=200000030900694

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/237573.htm

Hope this helps.

Regds

[#8]

Yeah, I have installed the updated drivers for veritas about a week ago. Nothing seems to be making any difference. Again thanks for your replies, especially Barry for giving me a few routes to try. I will have a play with the rsm service and hope for some good luck or divine intervention!