"SCSI PORT Error" Arcserve v9 Win2000 Sony AIT

[melask8]

Our Sony unit decided to eat a tape one night, so they sent us a (exact model)replacement. Since the replacement came we have been caught between Sony/CA/Dell trying to figure out why the backup will no longer run. Lots of finger pointing.... the only change was the tape unit.
Arc v9 will inventory tapes and start the backup (go to the first network server and pull data, start writing to the tape) and then die with the following

Windows NT SCSI PORT Error[ABSL:3041 CMD:A5h NT:48Fh 1167]

Any ideas? I changed the SCSI port selector on the back of the tape unit to port 4 per Sony.

 

[SjrH]

Does the replacement device have a different firmware revision? You might want to try appying the latest device update patch from CA's esupport website.

Another thing to try is to stop the tape engine and delete the HKLM\Software\Computer Associates\Arcserve\Base\Tape Engine key from the registry. Then re-start the tape engine which will re-create this key. You'll probably have to reconfigure your tape device groups if you do this though.

SjrH - Data Security Storage & Availability Specialist

http://www.sjrh.co.uk

 

[melask8]

Thanks SjrH,
I had tried that registry attempt already with tech support at CA and the firmware was current. Basically, I went the "when in doubt rip it out routine". I uninstalled the media changer, SCSI controller and tape drives from device mgr. I then assigned the AIT to the next available SCSI port (#3 for me) rather than "anything greater than 1" as offered by CA. A reboot reinstalled all the devices and the backup worked like magic last night.
I do admit that uninstalling the SCSI controller was hairy because there are services that run connected to that device. I had to stop a few ;-). But what else was I to do... we had already wasted a week.