Waiting for Deck/Deck is Busy

[FergADT]

When retrieving calls the retrieval request status changes to "Waiting for Deck" and the deck status changes to "Deck is Busy" once the tape has loaded. An error message flashes in the NICE Query retrieval requests window stating that there was an error on the deck. NICE Backup reflects that the deck's status is "Recovering.." (as it should be). The problem is that the calls often take as long as 45 minutes to retrieve. Eventually, it suddenly reflects (in NICE query) that the status is retrieval and the call is successfully pulled. This occurs on all three of my loggers, but is a fairly new situation (for 2 years I've been pulling calls without a problem of this nature).
The loggers are running NICE v8.5, build 36 if this is any help.

Any information would be appreciated...

Thanks!

 

[ChrisLynch]

Hi There,

Generally, tapes will only show "Recovering" when the data on the tape is corrupt and has to be 'Recovered'... I have found that the most common cause for tapes to have corrupt data on them is due to the DAT drives needing cleaned.

If the drives are dirty, then it's possible that data written to tapes can be corrupt and will have to be recovered, so you won't be able to "fix" any existing tapes... well, short of sending the tapes to NICE R&D in Israel and asking them to rebuild the data.

To stop this happening in the future, ensure that regular drive cleaning is carried out - we like to clean the DAT drives everytime a tape needs changed, this takes only a few seconds each time.

If you find that your DAT drives are becoming very dirty quite quickly, this can be caused be a build up of grime on the filters on the front of the loggers.

These should be cleaned approximately every 3 months. To do this, open the doors on the front of the logger, remove the metal holding piece (this is on a hinge) then remove the fabric filters. Simply wash these thoroughly in plain old water - you will really be surprised at the amount of dirt that comes out of them !!! Let them dry and put them back in.

These 2 simple steps should ensure that your drives are maintained properly and the risk of corrupt data is reduced somewhat.

If after doing this you find that NEW tapes you are putting in (after you clean drives and filters) are "Recovering" then this may be physical problem with one of your drives... look closely at the tapes that are showing as "Recovering"... are the all coming from one drive ? Are one of the DAT drives ejecting the tape before it is full ? If so this may indicate a faulty DAT drive.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Chris Lynch
mailto:chris@chrislynch.net

 

[FergADT]

Thanks for the advice (I run a cleaning tape through about every three tapes - I'll increase the frequency to every tape, though) - the calls are successfully retrieved from the tapes everytime, however. The problem only occurs when I put in a tape for retrieval (I.E. new tapes load and begin archiving without any issues). We did have a logger replaced by NICE several months ago; we were having multiple dat drive failures; but we've not had a drive failure since the new logger was installed (complete with new Sony dat drives). The tapes I've run retrievals from are from after this replacement, but from multiple loggers.

Thanks for the feedback - I may repost if I find other information or if further troubleshooting clarifies the problem a little...

 

[ChrisLynch]

Hi,

Sorry, yes that's what I meant - this only occurs during retrievals... I'm wondering though, does this happen with EVERY tape you try to retrieve ? If so, I suppose it's possible that the new drives are of a different spec to the ones in the old logger... I.E. NICE may have replaced DDS2 drives with DDS3 or DDS3 with DDS4 etc ?

Also, I'm not sure of exact details, but i know that although the drives are standard Sony DDS 2/3/4 DAT drives, they require a specific firmware version. It's possible that the firmware between the old drives and the new ones are causing a problem ?

Also, what brand of tapes are you using ? We use SONY DDS3 DAT's, however someone once ordered TDK tapes while i was off and I have found that every single one of these TDK tapes show "Recovering" when attempting a retrieval. Could be something to do with Tape quality.

Just a few more thoughts.

Regards,
Chris Lynch
mailto:chris@chrislynch.net

 

[FergADT]

All but one of our drives are Sony DDS3 (we still have an HP deck in our smallest logger, but I use the Sony drive for archival purposes) - I was using Sony DDS3 DATs, but the folks in corporate changed vendors and I'm now getting Fuji DATs - NICE did upgrade the firmware on the loggers, but they did so on all of the loggers and I haven't gotten a retrieval request from before the fw upgrade in several months.

I'll try a couple of retrievals from before the vendor switch and see if there's a noticeable difference (unfortunately I started getting the Fuji tapes at approximately the same time as the logger replacement and fw upgrades).

Thanks again for the assistance/advice...