HP C5683A, NT4 Server & NT Backup

[Andrew Laxton]

I currently have a server running NT4 SP6, Installed with a Tekram DC-390U2X scsi card & the HP C5683A dat drive connected to it.

It is the only device connected to the card.

The drive has power & it reads/writes/ejects tapes, but it has never completed a full backup.

It gets to about 3hrs into the process & then just stops, reports that the device is not accessable. the drive no longer responds to any software & the manual eject on the drive.

The only way to get the drive working again is to shutdown & power off the server, powering it back on again allows the drive to be accessed.

Using HPs storageworks, all of the diagnostics pass on the drive.

The drive has the C111 firmware.

The driver I am using is "Hewlett Packard 4 millimeter dat drive"

Is there a better driver to use for this device & will it resolve the issue?

Thanks

[meloni]

Andrew,

Are you using a cable with build-in terminator?

I would suggest also to run the DV utility suggested in the manual.

http://www.tekram.com.cn:8060/storage/SCSI/PCI/DC-390X/DC-390U2WE/Manual/DC-390U2WE_ManV101.pdf

Be also sure that the server can deliver enouth data to keed the Tape streaming, so run defrag first , then check with L&TT system performance

marino

[Andrew Laxton]

I dont think i used the LVD terminator as its a ultra device & it has active termination, is this correct?

The server has 28gb of data to backup, so there is plenty there & the server has no other disk activity when backing up.

the backup has tried to start, but it has the following error..

"A tape device has been detected, and the tape driver started. However, the tape device is not responding. Check the tape device power is on & the cables are properly connected."

When rebooting the server, if i dont turn it actually off, the scsi card does not detect the tape drive, even though the green light is displayed on the drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Andrew Laxton]

As there is no edit option, i'll update this one.

I have used the terminator & its on the last device on the cable.

I have ran the diskperf option in l&tt & it says the drives only have a read rate of 1mb/s & 2mb/s which i dont think is right.

I have installed it on another pc & i get 37mb/s on a 200gb 7200 ide drive with 8gb free.

Is this a limitation of disk management of NT4?

Would the tape drive stop responding (sleep) if its not receiving a high enough data rate?

Thanks

[CA859951]

Andrew:
I am not sure if this is a fix, but easy to try. Here is a link to a tape driver bundle:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/18619.html

Let us know what you find? -john

[Andrew Laxton]

Right, took the server apart yesterday, checked the cabling & it was fine, made sure the scsi card for the tape device was set to 40mb/s

got into windows ok, tape drive detected.

Ran a small backup of files, it copied the directories ok, but when i checked the tape, no actual files were on it, any ideas?

The main backup didnt run last night as the AT Scheduler didnt run, it just had error.

I have created a new schedule to run tonight & I will check remotely to see if it runs.

i will keep you informed.

Thanks for your input.