35/70 DLT "Tape In Use" flashes

[Eagle Crest MIS]

--Compaq 35/70 external DLT (Revision 2561)
--Compaq Proliant ML530 w/ Ultra-Wide2 SCSI (embedded)
--Netware 6.0 SP2
--Arcserve 7.0 for Netware

All of a sudden (no changes to server, software, anything), the "Tape In Use" light flashes continuously on the DLT drive. In Arcserve, the Tape Drive Status is "Tape Not In Drive". We have tried multiple tapes with the same results. Installing a new DLT drive allowed it to work for 2 days, then this error occurred again.

We have tried unloading, reloading drivers, changing the asconfig.ini file (per Arcserve's advice), power cycling DLT & restarting server, etc.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I am at my wit's end and we haven't had a good backup for 5 days. :(

Thanks in advance!

Debbie

[Eugeny Brychkov · Accepted solution]

Debbie,
open drive's door and look inside. You may see hook, but no tape on it. This situation is called dropped leader. Fix: drive replacement. Cause: bad tape(s).
You have to open all tapes' doors, inspecting their buckling loop not to be damaged and aligned properly
Eugeny

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Debbie,
open drive's door and look inside. You may see hook, but no tape on it. This situation is called dropped leader. Fix: drive replacement. Cause: bad tape(s).
You have to open all tapes' doors, inspecting their buckling loop not to be damaged and aligned properly
Eugeny

[Eagle Crest MIS]

I checked inside the drive and I checked all of our DLT cartridges. They all look fine, there is no damage. I wish that would have been it! Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Debbie

[Gilles Cadrin_1]

Hi Debbie,

Can you make sure that the Compaq Storage Foundation agents are not running on the box ?

hp ProLiant Storage Agents perform in-depth monitoring of a device's state by collecting and measuring key parameters on the device. The hp ProLiant Storage Agents display information on fibre channel, drive array, SCSI, and IDE subsystems. It also generates SNMP alarms when thresholds on key parameters are exceeded.


Basically this software polls the device to gather statistics ... Usually this can cause some problem with third party backup software since only one software can open up the device at a time.

For more info :

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/16387.html

Best Regards

Gilles

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Try HP LTT http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storageworks/ltt/index.html - will it see the drive? What will it ssay about the drive? Generate support ticket and attach to your next reply zipped
Eugeny

[Glenn Weavind_1]

Debbie:
I've seen a number of odd problems with external DLT drives (especially the short, wide desktop units) which have turned out to be power supply regulation failure. The DLT drive does odd things, goes offline, resets, and if you monitor the +12V supply I found it drifting down and up. The power supply hasn't failed completely, so difficult to spot!
Assuming you replaced the DLT drive mechanism into the same external chassis, I'd guess that this explains how it managed to 'work for 2 days'.
It's easy to replace the PSU...

[Eagle Crest MIS]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

This problem is at a remote site, and we had a user checking the cartridges. They said there weren't any bad ones, but today we made them look again and find ALL their tapes and low and behold, one of them was broken. It would have been helpful if they found that the first time, but at least now we know what happened.

I really appreciate all your help, you sure helped us fix our problems. Have a great day!!

Debbie