Errors 13xx with Tapeware

[Ivan Landtsheere]

- Windows 2000 server with SP2
- HP DAT40i (c5683A Firmware C111)New !!!!
- Tapeware 6.2 SP5B
- Cleaning done every 5 backups
- Tape Drive disabled in the Device Manager
- RMS Service Disabled
- HP tapes DDS4 New !!!!!!!!
I had a lot of errors 1300 in the log of my backups (the cleaning was done every 5 backups). I have also run the cleaning tape 5 time in a row as described in the LTT from HP, but it still continues.

Now I've replaced the tape drive and my tape set. THEY ARE BRAND NEW ! I've reinstalled Tapeware 6.2 SP5B... And ... I still have the same errors in my logs.

Tapeware support tells these errors are generated by the Tape Drive and that I have to contact HP...

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

On which HBA (SCSI card) is your DDS4 drive attached?

Vince

[Ivan Landtsheere]

The drive is attached to the embedded SCSI Card (the server is an HP LC2000)with the ID 3.

[Drs. Bov]

13xx errors are media errors but have to do probably with bad streaming of the drive. If so the next drive will fail again after some months. You can download a support tool: http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools If you can create a 'support ticket' and compare the numbers TR & TSAS the should be 'nearly' the same. If TR is 5 or 10 times higher you might have a streaming problem.
Pls. attach drive on B-channel of Symbios card (no Raid of course).

[Thibaut Bertrand]

Where can I find the TR and TSAS informations in the Support Ticket and what do they mean ?

[David Ruska]

> Where can I find the TR and TSAS informations in the Support Ticket and what do they mean ?

Under the detailed device information, look for 'Tape Tools Compatibility'. Under this entry will be a number of abbreviated fields, including:

TR = Total Repositions
TSAS = Total Start/Stops

[Thibaut Bertrand]

TR : 16133
TSAS : 1154

What can I do now ?

[Steve W]

Try running the Library & Tape Tools compression test, in addition to testing compression, it also displays a crude estimate of the data transfer rate. If the data transfer rate is less than 4-5 MB/sec, that would suggest a server bandwidth problem. Drives will stream-fail if the server bandwidth is strangled, and stream-failing will cause "shoe-shining", shoe-shining can cause data heads to clog with tape debris and that will cause r/w retries which in turn will cause further stream-failing. You need to break this loop by cleaning the heads and ensuring that data is sent to the drive at a rate sufficient to keep the drive streaming.