Not able to read tape label

[gaupaas]

Some background.
Have an old UNIX (IRIX 6.5) server with Legato Networker 7.1.1, Tapelibrary is a StorageTek L700 with IBM LTO1 Tape drives. This system is now due for termination, and i would like to install a new windows server (Windows 2003) with a small library. the library i have available is a HP MSL8096 with LTO3 Drives.

According to EMC the media database can be moved to the windows server, but is not supported. So we are aiming to do a scan of the tapes from the old system in case a restore will be needed.

So her is my challange:
The tapes used on the old backup system cannot be read on a windows backup system, i think i have tried every combination of OS an SP (Windows 2000, 2003) LTO1 and LTO3. Changed blocksize on OS and Networker level, added support for larger than 96k blocksize on windows (MaximumSGList). The tape label still cannot be identefied...

Anyone that can help me with this? I will be wery happy.

Thanks.

 

[Rif123]

Sounds strange. NetWorker uses a format called Open Tape Format and that is the same format whatever your platform is. If you cant even get your windows server to read the label of the tape there must be some encryption hardware or similar used when writing the tapes.

A tape label is always 32k in size, no matter what blocksize you set for the device. So you should be able to read the label without problem on all platforms even if they are not ablr to use the same blocksize as the rest of the tape is written with.

If you manually load the tape and run scanner against the loaded device, it reports nothing, an error, or tells you what the tape label is?

 

[gaupaas]

Thanks for the responce
Yes this is very strange. I do not have access to the system from home, so i cannot give you the accurate output of the scanner command, But when I start the command, one of the first actions is to read the label, and that failes. The response is "No Tape Label found", this is the same as a blank tape would report.
I have talked to the Unix admins, and there should not be any encryption (SW/HW), I am an complete amateur when it comes to Unix, so I cannot verify this. But if anyone knows where to check for any encryption in an IRIX 6.5 system, i will be more than happy to investigate.
I will add the output of the command as soon as I get access to the system again.

Thanks again.

 

[Rif123]

Very fishy... Sounds almost like you have empty tapes, or written with some other app than NetWoker. Can you test a tape on your UNIX system and run scanner against that? It will show the label and block size used. You can then just ctrl+c to exit.

If you take the very same tape over to your windows system and run scanner... Still No tape label found?

 

[gaupaas]

Hi Again.
The tapes can be scanned from the unix server (Thank God it is still alive....) I had a copy of the scanner output from the unix server in my Email.
--------------------------------------------------------
XXX:/> scanner -vvv /hw/tape/tps11d111nrsvc
scanner: /hw/tape/tps11d111nrsvc: opened for reading
scanner: /hw/tape/tps11d111nrsvc: rewinding
scanner: Rewinding done
scanner: Reading the label...
scanner: Reading the label done
scanner: scanning LTO Ultrium tape 002134 on /hw/tape/tps11d111nrsvc
scanner: volume id 4074570890 record size 65536
created 1/06/05 10:27:38 expires 1/06/07 10:27:38
---------------------------------------------------------
The ouput is longer, but at the moment it is not relevant. The Windows server(s) failes reading the same tape. I just renamed the servername with "XXX" in the output.

 

[gaupaas]

Here is the output from a server where the label failes to be read.

-------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>scanner -vvv \\.\Tape0
scanner: \\.\Tape0: opened for reading
scanner: \\.\Tape0: rewinding
scanner: Reading the label...
scanner: Reading the label done
scanner: NetWorker notice: no tape label found
scanner: NetWorker notice: no tape label found
scanner: scanning for valid records...
scanner: read: 0 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
scanner: read: 65536 bytes
------------------------------------------------------

In the end the message i something like "No records found

 

[Rif123]

Very interesting. If you take a blank tape, can you both write to and read from that on your windows host? Basically, just to make sure there is nothing wrong with the setup on Windows.

I have never ever used Irix myself, so I should probably don't give any advice on it, but what about the device name? To me that looks a bit strange. Any idea of what the "nrsvc" part of it is for?

 

[gaupaas]

I have tested this on several different backup server, some og them are in full production. I always get the same result when testing the scanning of the Unix tapes. Regarding the device names, i think that this is kind of standard "Device files" as the Unix admins call it. I have no idea what "nrsvc" means.I have recievd an overview of all the software installed on the unix server, and there are no encryption software installed.
Last test today was to install a new server from "Bare Metal" and networker, same result.

 

[gaupaas]

Hi Rif123
Since you asked, i had to follow that question "What does NRSVC mean"
This might be the answer to your question......

NR= No rewind on close
S= Device does byte-swap
V= Device supports variable block sizes
C= Compression

This make some sense, but the term "Device does byte-swap"...have no qlue :-(

 

[Rif123]

Yes, that all make sense. At least nr, v and c. Sounds like you have found the culprit in s. Googled a little and it seems like byte-swapping should not usually be used and was only default till version 4 of Irix.

I guess you'll have to investigate that further, but that makes sense why you can't read the tapes.

 

[gaupaas]

I will certanly follow this up, i will keep the tread updated.
Have a nice weekend,
Thanks