fbkup write errors / drive cleaning prob

[Debbie Fleith]

For the last two nights, our backups on our HP 10.20 server are failing. Yesterday the tape drive clean light was on, and although we clean it frequently, I cleaned it again and then ran the backup on a new tape.

Fbackup failed again and the tape drive clean light came on again.

The errors are as follows:
==============

fbackup(3045): WRITE ERROR while writing data record, at media record 84
fbackup(3102): attempting to make this volume salvagable
fbackup(3123): could not read the previous checkpoint record
fbackup(3105): writing 2 EOFs and rewinding the tape
fbackup(3106): please mount a good tape
==========
Is this possibly a hardware problem and my tape drive is failing?

If not, what else can I do besides clean the drive and try a new tape?

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Debbie:

It's not uncommon for brand new tapes to do this. I would clean the tape drive once more and use your (formerly) brand new tape again. If that fails then it's time for a tape drive.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Debbie:

Try cleaning the drive two or three times and *then* try your 'fbackup' or a simple 'tar' again. If you are still experiencing problems (particularly with a new tape), the drive probably needs replacing. The downside is, if this is an internal tape drive, as on a K-box, you will have to schedule a downtime and power the server off.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Patrick Wallek]

It could be that your tape drive is going bad.

I would try a brand new cleaning tape and run it through 2 or 3 times. I would then try a brand new blank tape and see what happens.

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

Second and subsequent cleaning of drives with continued failures certainly indicates that is is certainly time to replace the drive.

-Michael

[James George_1]

I had encountered the same problem and ended up in replacing the drive..

Hope this helps
James

[Kenny Chau]

Hi Debbie,

I had experienced this before and had nothing to do except replace the tape drive. It is abnormal that the cleaning light is always on. I suggest you to replace the tape drive as soon as possible, otherwise, it may ruin your tape.

Hope this helps.
Kenny.

[steven Burgess_2]

If all else fails after that check your sys log
for errors.

We have had a couple of instances recently of scsi timeouts happening at the time the system was writing data to the tape

PHKL l23259 SCSI subsystem cumelative patch

Solved our problem in the end

Steve