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Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

 
JAllan
Advisor

Tape does not eject after job completes

I have a problem with one of my customers installations where the Tape Drive does not eject the tape after a job completes. The log indicates that there are no errors, it verifies correctly and completes with Success. I have ticked the Advanced option to Eject the Tape after it job completes.

The first time it ran it worked, but for every other day since I have to eject the tape using an Eject Job, as I manage the server remotely.

Equipment/Environment
1. DW026A - Storage Works DAT 72 internal USB drive - Driver: 1.5.3.2 as came with the drive a few weeks ago.
2. Data Protector Express SSE V3.5 SP1

3. Windows 2003 R2 Server fully patched
4. HP DC2200 Desktop DX2200 Tower PC with 2GB RAM.

The Job is a NON Rotation job set to run every day. It completes correctly according to the log.

Note: Although a dedicated Eject job works OK, but I really need to have the tape eject when it completes with success, so that the Customer simply looks for the tape to eject, and then swaps the tape for the next days tape.

Many thanks

John Allan

8 REPLIES 8
D Lancaster
Honored Contributor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

Hi John,

Boy, that's kind of a tough guestion. SInce an Eject Job works it's not a matter of communication between the application and the eject function of the drive. It would appear that the job somehow forgot that it was supposed to eject the tape.

You might try this and see what happens:

1. Edit the job options and un-check the option to eject the tape.

2. Save the job and exit the Data Protector Express Admin GUI.

3. Restart the GUI and edit the job again, this time selecting the tape eject option.

4. Run the job and see what happens.

The only other thing I can think of is something is partially blocking the tape door causing the tape to reload. But this would also cause an eject job to fail.

DL
JAllan
Advisor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

I'm sure there is nothing causing a problem with the door - it's a brand new drive and the drive is mounted in a tower style computer so it's unlikely there would be anything in the way.

I seems like when you create a job it works, then when you subsequently edit it later on it causes it to forget the eject command, even though it is still selected - It would be nice if this option was listed in the log, alongside the other flags such as Overwrite Media etc. Then we would be able to check if it read the eject "flag".

Ideally it would also be nice to be able to see if the eject was carried out as well of course. It's a pain having to run a media identify job to see if it's in the drive!

I've found that my own installation which is the same software but using the external USB Drive and the ML110 server has a 2007 drive, so I've updated and rebotted and will see what happens tomorrow - maybe that will sort it out :-)

Cheers
D Lancaster
Honored Contributor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

Let me know what happens.

I can't replicate the problem. My set up is
- DAT72 USB internal
- ML110
- Win2003 SP2

The only difference is I'm running DAT driver 1.6.0

DL

JAllan
Advisor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

Hi Dave,

The backup failed to eject again! I have now set a Scheduled Eject Job for each morning at 0900hrs this should prove whether it's the software or hardware.

I wonder if it's worth removing DPE SSE, rebooting and then re-installing DPE SSE again now I have the newer hardware driver installed. My ML110 with an external drive works fine though so it's very frustrating!!

An additional bit of information: It appears that even with a brand new backup job the tape never ejects - It only ejects when I run an Eject Job. (I do check the Advanced tick box.

Is it possible to get the Software engineers to create a version that logs whether it reads the Eject tick box.

Cheers
D Lancaster
Honored Contributor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

You can initiate a SCSI trace by entering the following line into the root section of dpdevice.ini (it's found in the folder /Program Files/HP/Data Protector Express/config).

scsitrace=2

This will turn on SCSI tracing -- I know, it's USB but it actually uses SCSI commands -- and you should be able to see the call for the eject and any errors.

The trace file will be saved in the /log folder. Make sure you remove/comment out the line in dpdevice.ini so you don't continue to run the SCSI trace. You'll quickly fill up your volume with trace files.

DL
LesC
Occasional Contributor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

I have EXACTLY the same problem
ML110 G4 with DW026A drive
Data Protector Express 3.3 (build 30483)
however i program the eject after backup it will not do it.
I can eject the tape fine with DPE device operations.

someone help lease
My customer wants a tape backup that works properly !!!
JAllan
Advisor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

Les,

It turned out that I was mistaken and I had the slightly older version of SSE on this particular server (I was working on two installations at the time and thought they were aligned) - once I had actually put the Data Protector Express SSE V3.5 SP1 on, it worked fine, and has been running OK since :-)

Product DAT 72 Internal USB - Model C7438A
Firmware is revision ZU75

This is the same on my own server which also ejects OK.

JAllan
Advisor

Re: Tape does not eject after job completes

Because it is still hard to find this page - IMHO I've posted the Updates page here. I note that there is now a V3.5 SP2 that was released a week or so ago on 17th November 2007.

You might have to cut and paste this link -between the quotes of course!
"
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=1144275&prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=1144272&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005
"

Or start here for other OS's
"
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=1144275тМй=en&cc=us&taskId=135&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=1144272
"

Why it can't be directly on Data Express SSE Page under the Software and Drivers Link I cannot yet fathom!