Exabyte library & Arc2000 blues

[vulpine]

I recently upgraded my OS from NT 4.0 sp6A to Windows 2000 server SP2 on a Dell 4300 using Arcserve2000 with an Exabyte 200 library (w/Mammoth2 drives)and an Exabyte 220 library. I use 225m AME SELF CLEANING tapes (the first part of each data tape is actually cleaning ribbon). All the firmware for drives and libraries have been updated and the Adaptec cards have been verified by Exabyte support as compatible with their hardware. I am now getting errors in the backup log such as:

E6096 media error (CA's site suggests I clean my drives???)
E3855 unable to position media,..., Unrecoverable data error

...and now BARFserve can see the drives but not the slots in the 220 library. It thinks that the device is being used by another application. The tape engine will not stop when it is told (the light is red - but the process is still running).

This server is dedicated to backups, so I have had no problem in restarting everything - it has not helped though.

Please help, good kharma is like having a good backup, you know?

ash

 

[ArcservePro]

The error messages returned to you by Arcserve are the result of actual codes issued by the tape drives. The drive(s) encountered errors and possibly may have internally "hung" due to these errors. When the Arcserve tape engine is restarted, it scans for devices and reconfigures itself to accomodate for changes such as the missing tape drive. This may be why you lost sight of library slots.

To resolve these errors, simply reboot the server and all devices in the logical order. Devices first, server last. Before allowing the Arcserve tape engine to start run Device COnfiguration from the Arcserve program group. You may have to set the Arcserve services to manual start.

Device Configuration should show you the library and tape drives which you will add in the proper order according to the library drive layout. ie. first drive installed in the library gets added to the library first.

Once you're back up, use the tape logging feature to capture drive errors in the future and prove to the tape drive manufacturer that their product is at fault. Use the Arcserve logs to reveal the truth behind system faults. Chris Horvath - True Data Storage Networks Inc. - New York City
Premier CA VAR, Arcserve Training Center, StorageTek Dealer
arcserve_pro@yahoo.com

 

[Webcentral]

We are currently running ~10 Arcserve 2000 backup servers connected to a variety of M2 and mammoth drives, Exabyte 220 units. We have had similar problems to this, and the majority of times, this has been resolved by making sure that all Arcserve patches are applied, as well as firmware for the drives. This in particular has resolved a lot of problems that we have had with the Exabyte drives.

Chris Lang

 

[vulpine]

Many thanks, Chris. You were right, it was just a matter of turning the services to manual. It took a couple of resets on the 220 to get it to finally configure itself without getting caught in a loop, but once it did it worked like a charm.

ash

 

[Guest_imported]

We had this problem with a Intel STL2 Motherboard and it what fixed it was downloading an upgraded SCSI driver from the Intel Web site.