Tape drive problem

[Madhu_17]

Hello,

My server got rebooted unexpectedly and since then bakups are failing.

ioscan is showing this stand alone dlt drive as cliamed but mt command is giving I/O error.

How to go about this problem?

# ioscan -fnC tape
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=============================================================
tape 0 8/12.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE Quantum DLT4000
/dev/rmt/0m /dev/rmt/c2t3d0BEST
/dev/rmt/0mb /dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTb
/dev/rmt/0mn /dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTn
/dev/rmt/0mnb /dev/rmt/c2t3d0BESTnb


# mt -t /dev/rmt/0m rew
rewind 1 failed: I/O error


Thanks....

[MarkSyder]

Possible tape damage - try the tape in a different drive and try a known working tape in this drive.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[RAC_1]

Check connections/cables/terminators to the drive. Also check with STM. (as follows)

echo "sel path 8/12.3.0;info;wait;infolog"|cstm

If there are hardware errors, you will have to get it replaced.

[Madhu_17]

Tape media problem chance is not there. It is a stand alone drive and the onsite contact is changing the tapes daily and we are getting this problem since 3 days.

cstm is showing that the drive is good and it has not given any read errors also.

one more thing, EMS event is showing that the "Drive temperature limits exceeded"

what can we do?

[Stephen Keane]

You say the tape drive is a stand alone tape drive, are you sure it isn't an autochanger device with a 5 or 7 cartridge library attached? In which case, maybe it needs to redo its inventory?

[Madhu_17]

I am sure that it is a stand alone DLT drive

[Sยภเl Kย๓คг]

Hi,

Can u try with an old tape, which was backedup in the same drive. Try to list the contents using tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0mn. if still it gives the same problem, try using a cleaning catridge and clean the drive. What's the LDED indications on the drive.

Just observe the activity of the drive while giving the mt command, is the drive performing any activity.

Post your observations.
regards,
Sunil

[Stephen Keane]

# mt -t /dev/rmt/0m status

Please post result

[Madhu_17]

# mt -t /dev/rmt/0m rew
rewind 1 failed: I/O error

[Stephen Keane]

Use "status" not "rew", you don't even have to have a tape in the drive for "status" to work.

If "status" fails, then it isn't the tape that's wrong it's the drive.

[Madhu_17]

Most of our servers will not give status in mt command. I heard that some patch is required to get the status using mt command. So, we generally use rew in mt command to check the functionality of our drives.

[Madhu_17]

Our onsite guy confirmed that the fan was failed in the DLT drive. we have put up a call with the hardware vendor.

Thanks all for all the valuable inputs.

[Madhu_17]

I got valuable suggestions