slow DLT8000 and a fix please

[Scott Dunkley]

Hi all,

My customer has complained that when HP upgraded the firmware on their DLT800 the backup times doubled. Hp then retro installed an older version of the firmware and things are back to normal. They have been told they need to get to the latest revision but are reluctant becuase of the speed issues.

I have read loads of information on here about this issue. Most relate to fbackup and setting blocksperrecord, my customer uses tar so would increasing the blocking factor have the same effect as increasing blocksperrecord?

If they put the latest firmware on the DLT8000 is there a fix for the slow backup issue?

thanks in advance,

Scott.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Hi Scott,

I don't know if this will help, but did you install the HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tools ?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us&softwareitem=co-18247-1

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[Scott Dunkley]

No i havnt installed those tools, what are they used for and what use will they be to me?

Thanks,

Scott.

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

check this doc.

http://www5.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000074173431

Document description: HP Surestore Tape Library - Troubleshooting Common Problems
Document id: lpg75068

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[Dietmar Konermann]

Indeed, newer DLT8000 f/w revisions are known to perform worse with IO request sizes <32K. So it would be a good idea to test with tar's maximum blocking factor 64.

# tar cvfb 64 ...

Best regards...
Dietmar.