Tapes marked full - plenty of space left 2

[mtayloratppld]

We're running version 7.4 and have recently come across this problem.

I can put in a new tape for our offsite pool and in a few minutes it's done and says that it's Full.

I go to look at what's on the tape and it's only written about 400-600mb. Also, for some of the save sets on the tape it lists the status as "in-progress suspect". Is this what's causing the tapes to 'fill-up' so quickly? Thanks.

 

[denisfr]

Hello,

when NW detects an hardware error on a tape (due to drive or tape), it puts the tape in full status in order to avoid other use of this tape.

Try to check if the drive is always the same, check also the last clean date of the drive (if managed by NW).

check hardware errors of your drives by the way of system logs.

OTH

 

[mtayloratppld]

I tried loading the cleaning tape but I'm still having the same issues.

I did check the media log in the nsr folder and I'm seeing this message:

"NetWorker cleaning cartridge required: (notice) Jukebox `QUANTUM@4.5.1' Unable to find a cleaning slot in jukebox `QUANTUM@4.5.1' for device `\\.\Tape0'."

Could there be a problem with the drive cleaning which could be causing the "FULL" tapes? How do I go about fixing the error about the cleaning slot?

 

[denisfr]

When NW detects read/write errors, it puts the tape in 'full state' and sometimes puts the drive in service mode (depending on numbers of retries).

Then after, it tries to perform a cleaning. But if you have not 'autoclean' at yes, it cannot clean the drive.

But in your case, it seems that you have 'autoclean' at yes, but you may have not indicated to NW what where the slots in your silo containing cleaning tapes, so it cannot find a tape, but as written in the logs, this is a 'notice' message, not an 'alert' message. Try to fix this problem by providing 'cleaning slots' in the JB properties.

If you have performed a manual cleaning by mounting a tape by yourself, it may indicate that this drive is defective.

How many drives contains your JB ?

Have you tried some others drives ?

 

[mtayloratppld]

It thinks that my cleaning tape is in slot 16 but we only have 8 slots. So I went to change it to slot 8 and it told me that it can't use it because it's in the 'available slots' range.

Where do I exclude slot 8 from the available slots? Can I do that from the GUI?

 

[denisfr]

You can configure NW to clean the JB by itself.

From the gui (in 'diagnostic mode'), go to your JB properties :

in the advanced tab :
- modify the 'available slots' of 'media management' (typically, 1-7)
in the 'general' tab :
- check the autoclean box
- give the slot # where you plan to put your cleaning tape (typically, 8)

but be sure to have no tape in the 8th slot to perform operation !

after that, deposit your tape in the 8th slot and tell NW how many uses do you authorize with this tape :

nsrjb -U 15 -S 8

After that, you will be able to perform a manual cleaning by cheking the 'cleaning required' box in the device properties of your drive. Don't forget to give a value for 'cleaning interval' in order to have automatically cleaning performed.

OTH

 

[a060463xyz]

Yes you can change it from the GUI (NMC):
First you select your networker serve in the nmc.
Then you choose in the menu "View" the entry "Diagnostic Mode".
Now you press the "Device" button. Select your Jukebox with the right mouse buton and press "Properties" from the pop-up menu.
In the library configuration menu select the rider "Addvanced".
In the textfield "Available Slots" you write 1-7 for your jukebox.
After this you can change the cleaning Slot from 16 to 8.

 

[mtayloratppld]

I got the slot set for cleaning and was able to clean the drive successfully.

Unfortunately I'm still having the 'Full tape' issue. Any other suggestions?

 

[denisfr]

Check hardware errors of your drive...
Have you just one drive or many drives ?

 

[mtayloratppld]

Where do I go to check for hardware errors?

We only have one drive.

 

[denisfr]

I suppose you are running Windows...

Check the event log...

Try to mount a tape manually and to write on it by a windows backup.

 

[mtayloratppld]

This is the message from the Windows Event Log:

The device, \Device\Tape0, has a bad block.

 

[denisfr]

Have you tried manually to write on a tape ?
What is the type of your drive ?
Does NW needs to have 'variable length block size' for this kind of drive ?

 

[montana76]

I hade almost the sam problem and I had to change my SCSI cards (LSI_LOGIC) to Adaptec.

My problems were:

-The tapes didnt get full. Sometimes it wrote 200 Mb of 1,6TB capacity.
-Strange I/O errors in the daemon log
-Bad streming speed.

/M

 

[a060463xyz]

I think you have a hardware-problem.
Check or replace the following:

scsi-terminator
scsi cables
scsi hostadapter
tape drive of the library

 

[minzbigr]

Can you tell me the hardware platform for the networker server, tape library and drive? Thanks.