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96 Posts
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2658
Tape Devices Disappear when backups start
Hi All,
I'm running NetWorker 7.5.2 on a Windows 2008 R2 server.
attached we have a Scalar i2000 library with 6 LTO4 drives, 4 drives are shared and 2 are non-shared.
We dont have any driver software installled for the tape drives as it is using the windows drivers.
Our backups worked perfectly for months, until recently we've been getting problems with the tape drives.
when no backups are running and I run an inquire | find "Tape" command, I can see all six tape drives.
However when the backups are started, and I run an inquire command some of the tape drives are not displayed.
I do see errors in the Operations view in NetWorker, error - Device\media error: read open error:the device file name specified is unusable by CDI (drive reports no error but state is unknown)
I tried installing Vendor specific drivers for the tape drives, but Windows does not allow me to as it reports that the latest and correct drivers are already installed.
Anyone that can help with this error - Will I need to re-configure the devices again in NetWorker as that will be my next step.
I have rebooted the server already hoping that it would've helped, however no luck with a reboot.
Thanks & Regards...
ble1
14.3K Posts
0
August 25th, 2010 04:00
I have seen this once on x64 2003 system. Whenever you would start to write to drive it would be gone (lost its handle/path). IBM drivers corrected that. Usually with IBM drives you really wish to use IBM tape drivers. Not sure which is the latest or stable version, but you can check following link and see it yourself:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21428656&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSRQGY&mynp=OCSSVVS7&mynp=OCSSSQZW&mynp=OCSSSQWC&mynp=OCSSGSG7&mync=R
Umraan
96 Posts
0
August 13th, 2010 01:00
Or could it perhaps be that I'm trying to install a version of IBM drivers that is not compatable to Windows 2008 R2 server ?
Does anyone knwo what is the latest version of IBM drivers that supports Windows 2008 R2 server ?
vipin_joy
32 Posts
0
August 13th, 2010 07:00
Do check if the CDI feature for each tape drive is enabled. If yes, disable the CDI feature for each tape drive (Drive properties -> advanced) by selecting "Not Used"
Umraan
96 Posts
0
August 30th, 2010 06:00
It was infact a hardware related problem.
as for the devices dissappearing I downloaded the latest IBM drivers supported on Windows 2008 platform and installed on server.
Devices do not disappear during backups anymore.
We actually managed to enable the persistent binding using the IBM drivers.
Works great, we rebooted the server a couple of times and no swoping of devices anymore...