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November 8th, 2016 15:00
TL4000 LTO5 Tape Library Drive Error's
Hi All,
I am receiving errors on one of my LTO5 Drives in a TL4000 Tape Library. THe Drive Error Code is saying No Error and Port Status is Logged out. The tape seems to get stuck can't be ejected, however If I power cycle the library I can move it out, although the tape seems to get maked as Bad by the library when the error occurs as well. From what I can tell I think it's when a tape is full and getting ready to eject the drive has issues. This has occurred about 6 times now for the last week or so. See screenshot of Drive Status below.
The LTO5 drives have both been replaced under warranty with one of them now being replaced twice so that's 3 drives replaced now in 3 years. The drive has been cleaned many times and seems to require cleaning every time this error occurs even if it's only done 5-15hs worth... Do I now have another problem with this drive?
Drive Dump logs are also attached.
Currently Installed Library Firmware D.10 / 3.20e
DELL-Sam L
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November 11th, 2016 06:00
Hello FNQEngineer,
So thanks for the logs as that tells more of what the issue that you have going on. So the error that you are getting is “Drive failed to reach the bottom sensor while acquiring servo”. So the take up wheel is not disengaging from the media when the media is trying to eject. The error will clear on a power cycle of the system as the drive will go through its homing cycle.
The normal fix is to make sure that you are running the latest firmware on the drive. If you are running the latest firmware on the drive & error still keeps happening then the drive needs to be replaced.
In your case your drive is at the latest firmware version. Also I can see that this error has happened on 3 different tapes as well. I would say that since you have a support contract still active that the drive needs to be replaced again as the sensor on the drive is the issue in this case. One other thing is how old is your media?
Please let us know if you have any other questions.
FNQEngineer
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November 13th, 2016 16:00
Hi Sam,
Thanks for the info and response. I thought this is what I was seeing in the logs while going through them myself, just wasn't 100% and now you have confirmed my suspicions. The unit has only just recently gone out of support contract, so looks like will be having to purchase a replacement drive now, only just 3 years old the unit. Bit sad to see this will be the 4th drive replacement now, had 3 replaced under support. So seems these drives really aren't up to the cut and seeing the replacements are refurbished makes me wonder the quality. With this experience not sure I would purchase another Dell Tape library or recommend as they aren't up to the task by the looks.
The media varies from New to 3 years old, most tapes have only be used 2-4 times in the library so far, only storing Monthly for long time and keeping short term on disk.
tapelibraryfixer
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November 14th, 2016 01:00
to be honest based on how many tape libraries and drives ive repaired, it wouldn't make much difference what tape library you buy. the TL4000 is basically an IBM TS3200 which also uses IBM drives obviously. then you have the HPE 4048 which is again the same library but uses HP drives and HP LTO5 drives aren't much better. then any other library you get would also use either IBM or HP drives.