TapeRedirector - Drive offline in BackupExec

Tape drive and auto-loader redirector over iSCSI

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Anatoly (staff)
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Fri Sep 05, 2014 9:38 am

Hmm.... don`t see that... Can I ask you to email me directly (av@starwind.com)? Don`t forget to put the link to this thread into the email.
Best regards,
Anatoly Vilchinsky
Global Engineering and Support Manager
www.starwind.com
av@starwind.com
kmax
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Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:29 pm

I can verify this behavior...

After tape ejects (an LTO-5 tape drive Quantum) it will appear online for backup exec 2014. If you do something simple like an inventory the tape it will immediately appear offline.

Basically right clicking to turn it back to "online" and it is fine.
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anton (staff)
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Sat Sep 13, 2014 1:22 pm

Thank you for updating! Guess doing some sort of a PowerShell script to get tape back sounds reasonable?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Blue407
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Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:08 pm

Any further updates on this, its been a while now...
Thx :)
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anton (staff)
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Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:10 pm

Not sure what update you want from us @ this moment... It's not our issue so guys have been proposing workaround. Do you want us to incorporate one (PowerShell script, HOWTO guide or...)?
Blue407 wrote:Any further updates on this, its been a while now...
Thx :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Blue407
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Thu Oct 30, 2014 5:15 pm

Hi

We all need a reliable workaround, one we can automate. Its a pain having to remember to manually inventory the tape after changing it and then bring the drive online.
As I said, my testing showed that this problem did not occur when BE is installed on the host server, only when running in hyper-v and using your tape redirector. Its very difficult for me to diagnose it any further.

So anyway you can help with something we can run automatically, would be really appreciated :)
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anton (staff)
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Thu Oct 30, 2014 10:45 pm

We're re-investigating the issue and will probably provide an out-of-box PowerShell script to workaround this.
Blue407 wrote:Hi

We all need a reliable workaround, one we can automate. Its a pain having to remember to manually inventory the tape after changing it and then bring the drive online.
As I said, my testing showed that this problem did not occur when BE is installed on the host server, only when running in hyper-v and using your tape redirector. Its very difficult for me to diagnose it any further.

So anyway you can help with something we can run automatically, would be really appreciated :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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k1_
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Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:25 pm

Hi

I'm getting the same problem using DPM 2012 R2 UR4. It happens after a while from 10-40Gb of written data to the Tape.

Is this the same problem as with BackupExec?

I have been wating the server for hardware faults and hardware disconnect but there is no problem there.

I'm running Windows Server 2012 R2 with tha latest updates and also running the latest version if TapeRedirector (7145).

Here are logs entries from the server:
11/3 7:49:52.175 280 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#sequential&ven_hp&prod_ultrium_5-scsi#5&392c69dc&0&070000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': scsiPassThrough failed: The device is not connected. (code: 1167).
11/3 7:49:52.175 280 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#sequential&ven_hp&prod_ultrium_5-scsi#5&392c69dc&0&070000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT (before):
0000 38 00 00 00 00 00 06 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 8......@........
0010 e0 a5 01 00 00 00 00 00 20 58 21 02 00 00 00 00 à¥...... X!.....
0020 38 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 8...............
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
11/3 7:49:52.175 280 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#sequential&ven_hp&prod_ultrium_5-scsi#5&392c69dc&0&070000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT (after):
0000 38 00 00 00 00 00 06 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 8......@........
0010 e0 a5 01 00 00 00 00 00 20 58 21 02 00 00 00 00 à¥...... X!.....
0020 38 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 8...............
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

/Kalle
Blue407
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Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:37 pm

I doubt it is the same cause/problem, the BE issue only occurs after a tape change. Its like BE does not realise the tape has changed and the next time it tries to talk to the drive it goes offline.
Val (staff)
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Mon Nov 03, 2014 6:06 pm

k1_ wrote:I'm getting the same problem using DPM 2012 R2 UR4. It happens after a while from 10-40Gb of written data to the Tape.

Is this the same problem as with BackupExec?

I have been wating the server for hardware faults and hardware disconnect but there is no problem there.

I'm running Windows Server 2012 R2 with tha latest updates and also running the latest version if TapeRedirector (7145).

Here are logs entries from the server:
11/3 7:49:52.175 280 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#sequential&ven_hp&prod_ultrium_5-scsi#5&392c69dc&0&070000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': scsiPassThrough failed: The device is not connected. (code: 1167).
11/3 7:49:52.175 280 SPTI: '\\?\scsi#sequential&ven_hp&prod_ultrium_5-scsi#5&392c69dc&0&070000#{53f5630b-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}': IOCTL_SCSI_PASS_THROUGH_DIRECT (before):
0000 38 00 00 00 00 00 06 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 8......@........
0010 e0 a5 01 00 00 00 00 00 20 58 21 02 00 00 00 00 à¥...... X!.....
0020 38 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 8...............
0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
Hi,

It's not the same issue as that one with BE offlined tapes.

It looks like your system lost connection to that drive for some time (error 1167). Are there many such messages in the StarWind log file?

Are there any errors in the System log on the StarWind host?
Best regards,
Valeriy
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anton (staff)
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Mon Nov 03, 2014 6:16 pm

Valery can it be anybody in the storage stack who has connection to tape drive and basically receives "media changed" ASC/ASCQ from tape drive instead of a customer whom we're supposed to send that over iSCSI?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Val (staff)
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Mon Nov 03, 2014 6:53 pm

Anton,
anton (staff) wrote:Valery can it be anybody in the storage stack who has connection to tape drive and basically receives "media changed" ASC/ASCQ from tape drive instead of a customer whom we're supposed to send that over iSCSI?
According to the logs I've seen StarWind receives the "media changed" Unit Attention, and reports it to the client initiator.

It seems to be some time out issue at the BE side that leads to marking tape drives as offline.
I guess BE may use different time out settings for different tape drive connection types (SAS, SCSI, FC or iSCSI), there is a chance that BE recognizes tape drives mapped with iSCSI as connected to a local bus with short timeouts, so when a rather long delay with answer occurs it decides that the drive has gone offline...
Best regards,
Valeriy
k1_
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Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:31 am

Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:07 pm

Val,

Yes everytime I run a backup to Tape job from DPM 2012 R2 and after a while I get this exact same error in the Starwind host. There are no errors in the System log on the host, and I have alse checked for other hardware related errors or logs, but it looks normal, I have also been observing the device manager at the host during the failure and the Tape drive doesn't disconnect.

I've also used the latest drivers on both sides.

It was working before with the old version of TapeRedirector with the same setup.

I've also tried to tweak some iSCSI settings in the registry as suggested by Microsoft but no luck.

Any suggestions?

/Kalle
Val (staff)
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Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:38 pm

Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:42 pm

k1_ wrote:It was working before with the old version of TapeRedirector with the same setup.

Any suggestions?
If it worked well for you with the older TapeRedirector, the first idea is to try it now to be sure it's the new TapeRedirector build's problem and not a hardware related issue...
Best regards,
Valeriy
Blue407
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:59 pm

Thu Dec 11, 2014 12:12 pm

Any further progress? I thought somebody was going to look at a script we could run automatically?

Thanks :)
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