The error I cant get rid of, and that is crashing my whole backup schedule is E6096 Media Error. Even though there are 3 more drives available, any job that attempts to use the one bad drive or tape will time out and cancel, so I lose about 25% of my jobs. I have tried 5 new batches of tapes. Replaced the scsi cards, replaced 3 tape libraries. Loaded all service packs and bios updates. I am running Arcserve 2000 Sp3 on Windows 2000 SP3. Using 2 MIniexpress Libraries (Overland) with Quantum super DLt drives. Overland has worked with me through all the possiblities, even exchanging 3 new libraries. I have to say that it is a Arcserve problem. Anyone seem to have on and off media errors, when you know the media is good?
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E6096 Media Error
- Thread starter ddaily
- Start date
I have been working for two months on and off now trying in vain to get a satisfactory resolution to this issue. Arcserve is a crock of s**t in my opinion. I have to date replaced the library and one drive. Reinstalled all the drivers for the SCSI controller and all the available firmware upgrades. The last suggestion made to me was to disable the Wide Negotiation feature in the Adaptec Bios so that the transfer rates between the card and the server was 40Mb/sec as opposed to 160Mb/sec. No joy whatsoever. I am out of ideas. CA have a lot to answer for. I'll keep you posted as to any progress I make.
Interesting post though.
Interesting post though.
- Thread starter
- #3
Sorry to hear your sufferring like me. I just had my boss buy a Dell T136 Library with 6 SDLT drives and a Adaptec 39160 scsi card to go with it. You cant get any better hardware than that. I got it installed today and ran through about 5 tapes and then "Unrecoverable Media Error" "Cant position Media". Same old song and dance. I haven't even bothered to call Arcserve. I have tried all thier tricks in the past. Tommorrow I am going to reformat the server and start over. If it does not work then, I guess I have to tell my boss I cant do it. I have never had to do that before. I agree, Arcserve is S_ _ _. I have spent the past 6 months baby sitting my backup system while I have 150 users to take care of. If you find any answers let me know.
ddaily - you might have been better off going for the Fibre-channel solution rather than the SCSI card route to connect your beast of a tape drive to your server.
I have found that by using fibre, it seems to be much more reliable than SCSI, especially for the newer kit. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
-----------------------------------------------------
I have found that by using fibre, it seems to be much more reliable than SCSI, especially for the newer kit. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
-----------------------------------------------------
- Thread starter
- #5
Current updates, have now replaced another drive, the SCSI controller card, the SCSI cable and the terminator. Still the same issue. Have now hair growing out of the back of my hands. I am no closer to solution now than I was when I started. It seems to be a hardware fault and yet it has all been replaced to date, bar the library itself.
Went through an escalation procedure with CA support here and am currently awaiting a response....Will keep y'all posted.
Went through an escalation procedure with CA support here and am currently awaiting a response....Will keep y'all posted.
- Thread starter
- #7
I have given up on the Dell Quad Zeon server with a 39160 scsi card installed. I am going to move the whole library to a Dell 4400 with on board scsi. This server was used as a backup server on another network with a tape library and never had any errors. If this one does not work, then I know it is a Arcserve issue. I have been in Network Administration for 8 years and this is making me look like I dont know what I am doing. I have paid a high price just to get this S _ _ _ to work right! the way I feel, Arcserve owes me.
I got a phone call from the Enterprise Level Tech Support Group in the UK. Good guy on the face of it....took the details, bios revs, firmware levels, OS, patches applied etc..etc...and then he tells me that there has been a new device patch released and would I download and apply it.
So I say sure, I'll do that. Went through the routine, downloaded and applied it and ran the two nightly jobs which to date have been stalling/crashing within 2 minutes.....That was almost an hour ago!!!!! Both jobs are still running and there have been no errors at all in that time. The jobs will take several hours to complete but if this patch resolves it I am going to recommend they client site ditch the software and move to Veritas. I don't know about all the hardware that you are using man, seems extreme given the level of posters with similar errors. That thread "Losing My Mind" made me laugh out loud several times from the whole I AM NOT ALONE aspect. Anyway, I'll keep you informed.
PS: Patch name is QO09281.caz The guy wouldn't tell me what it fixes/upgrades and there is no release notes either.....Telling or what?
So I say sure, I'll do that. Went through the routine, downloaded and applied it and ran the two nightly jobs which to date have been stalling/crashing within 2 minutes.....That was almost an hour ago!!!!! Both jobs are still running and there have been no errors at all in that time. The jobs will take several hours to complete but if this patch resolves it I am going to recommend they client site ditch the software and move to Veritas. I don't know about all the hardware that you are using man, seems extreme given the level of posters with similar errors. That thread "Losing My Mind" made me laugh out loud several times from the whole I AM NOT ALONE aspect. Anyway, I'll keep you informed.
PS: Patch name is QO09281.caz The guy wouldn't tell me what it fixes/upgrades and there is no release notes either.....Telling or what?
- Thread starter
- #9
I tried that patch a month ago. It is posted on the site. It had no effect on mine. I think your problem is a lot different than mine. I get 80 percent of my jobs to run and finish. It's just that I lose a tape drive in the rotation each night due toa media error, whick screws up the whole order of things. Good luck to ya!
- Thread starter
- #10
My boss seems to think he has found the problem. After rebuilding a new server and hooking everything up, we ran backups. Within 2 minutes we got scsi error, unrecoverable media error. Somewhere in the next 24 hours we decided to erase the brand new tapes using the full erase option. This took 2 hours per tape. We only did 3. We ran all jobs that night with no errors. So we erased 15 more and ran the jobs 2 more nights with no errors. He seems to think that this is the problem, but you should not have to do a 2 hour erase on a brand new tape. This just shows me that the tape or Arcserve is to sensative. Also after the run when we got the errors, I remebered that I forgot to load the device patch that you mentioned, so I loaded it. That could simply be the reason why it is working. I am going to sneak a few unerased tapes in on the rotation to prove that the long format is not solution. It gets wierder by the day!
ARCserveGuru
Technical User
Ddaily, I have seen this issue many a time before and with troubleshooting I believe that the long erase fixes the problem. Basically this is becasue the sdlt tapes coming from the factory appear to have a format problem of their own. Surprise?
Not Arcserve's fault?
Has the world gone mad?
guru
Not Arcserve's fault?
Has the world gone mad?
guru
- Thread starter
- #12
What baffles me is that after dealing with Computer Associates, Overland and Dell for the last 5 months, no one has even suggested a full erase. The last Arcserve tech did have me do a quick erase plus, which is the second of three options. Surely I am not the only one having this problem. Someone needs to step up and say "Yes this is our faulty product" and fix the issue. But I guess that is only a dream. I am still uncovinced. I have taken tapes that gave me media errors in the past and put them aside, only to go back and use them later and they work fine. It sounds like a sensativity issue. If all conditions are not just right, the tape errors out. My mext test is to go back to putting new tapes in the library without doing anything to them and see if the errors return. So far 3 days and no scsi errors using full erased tapes.
ARCserveGuru
Technical User
Well, judging my the problem being a possible format issue from the factory of the SDLT tapes, I believe that the brand new tapes will have media problems.
Let us know.
guru
Let us know.
guru
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hi there
I have a problem with Arcserve for Windows NT (SP4) Arcserve ver 6.5. Keeps coming up with "W3831 Unable to find any Cheyenne Media". Its also in the log file. Now I've found an article on the web saying to clean the tape drive, which I did, and to try a different tape, which I also did. Still comes up with the same error message. I know that the tape media is alright, so I don't really know where to go from here. The backup jobs were going fine until about 2 days ago when it decided to spit this error message out all of a sudden. Any ideas?
I have a problem with Arcserve for Windows NT (SP4) Arcserve ver 6.5. Keeps coming up with "W3831 Unable to find any Cheyenne Media". Its also in the log file. Now I've found an article on the web saying to clean the tape drive, which I did, and to try a different tape, which I also did. Still comes up with the same error message. I know that the tape media is alright, so I don't really know where to go from here. The backup jobs were going fine until about 2 days ago when it decided to spit this error message out all of a sudden. Any ideas?
Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Hi there
I have a problem with Arcserve for Windows NT (SP4) Arcserve ver 6.5. Keeps coming up with "W3831 Unable to find any Cheyenne Media". Its also in the log file. Now I've found an article on the web saying to clean the tape drive, which I did, and to try a different tape, which I also did. Still comes up with the same error message. I know that the tape media is alright, so I don't really know where to go from here. The backup jobs were going fine until about 2 days ago when it decided to spit this error message out all of a sudden. Any ideas?
I have a problem with Arcserve for Windows NT (SP4) Arcserve ver 6.5. Keeps coming up with "W3831 Unable to find any Cheyenne Media". Its also in the log file. Now I've found an article on the web saying to clean the tape drive, which I did, and to try a different tape, which I also did. Still comes up with the same error message. I know that the tape media is alright, so I don't really know where to go from here. The backup jobs were going fine until about 2 days ago when it decided to spit this error message out all of a sudden. Any ideas?
I too stuggled with the E6096 problem for several weeks. I'll spare you all the dead-ends that were followed and tell you that what finally fixed the problem for me, on two different systems, was upgrading the firmware on the drive. We're using Exabyte M2 drives in Dell PowerEdge 4400's with ArcServe 2K. No amount of reinstalling/patching/hot-fixing etc did any good. THen I got an Exabyte guy on the phone that suggested the FW flash and it worked like a champ! So it turns out it wasn't ArcServe after all. I realizer this might not solve it for everyone, but its worth a look.
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