supportatcato Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Hi all, I have just had my tape drive replaced after it went south. It's been tested by the repairer thoroughly. When I attempt to run a backup to the drive (brand new tapes) it gets to the point of actually writing to the tape, and the drive disappears, leaving Retrospect hanging in the process. If I quit Retrospect, and open it again, the drive is invisible to Retrospect (but the tape library is still there). If I look in System Profile, the drive is there and looks just fine. (the following is in a state where retrospect can't see the drive). SCSI Bus: OVERLAND LXB: Manufacturer: OVERLAND Model: LXB Revision: 0106 SCSI LUN: 0 HP Ultrium 1-SCSI: Manufacturer: HP Model: Ultrium 1-SCSI Revision: E37U SCSI LUN: 0 But Retrospect cannot set the drive at all, only the Overland library. If I restart, the tape drive is visible, but the same problem occurs again when I write to the tape. Moving tapes in and out with Retrospect is not a problem. The library front panel shows idle when the problem occurs. This drive was working fine before the failure/repair. I don't have another suitable system to test it on. The SCSI cables look ok to me and the terminator's light is on. I tried reinstalling Retrospect with the latest version but it made no difference. I haven't tried the Leopard update because it's running on Mac OS X Server 10.3.9 (dual 2Ghz xserve G5, 1Gb RAM, 1.4Tb xserve raid). The only suggestions I've had are 'replace the scsi cables' and 'get different software'. Not a lot of help :-) My gut feeling is it's some kind of weird permissions error or software problem. Is there a non-Retrospect 'write stuff to a tape' application out there I could test the drive with? Any advice on where to look for a solution? Happy to provide more information if you can suggest it. Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 I don't do tape drives, and I'm sure Russ will contribute to the thread, but I assume that Overland is the library/loader, and Ultrium is the drive? So nowhere in your post is the make/model/driver/firmware of the SCSI host adapter card documented? It might be important... Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supportatcato Posted February 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Thanks Dave, good point of clarification. Yes, Overland is the library,and Ultrium is the LTO-1 drive. The SCSI card is an Apple Ultra320 (That's all I know) Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Quote: The SCSI card is an Apple Ultra320 (That's all I know) That's enough. Those cards don't work well with Retrospect. Again, waiting for Russ to contribute; he'll tell you the specifics (Apple rebranded the card from another manufacturer). But plan on getting an ATTO card to go along with your quality robot and drive. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Been there, done that. We got an Apple Ultra320 (really, a rebranded LSI Logic 22320) as a Build-to-Order ("BTO") option with our Xserve G5. The card is a piece of junk, never worked right with Retrospect. Other backup vendors than Dantz/EMC/Insignia (whatever) have the same opinion. We replaced it with an ATTO UL4D and the problems went away immediately. And the Apple SCSI card isn't even heavy enough to use as a paperweight. I'll ask the dumb question, because your drive/autoloader are set up differently than our Exabyte drive/autoloader. Are the drive and autoloader supposed to have the same LUN? Could you post the output of Apple System Profiler after a good boot and before things go south? You never mention version of Retrospect or the Retrospect Driver Update version. Could you provide that information? Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supportatcato Posted February 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Interesting comments about the Ultra320 - I've not heard it before. I must say that we've ALWAYS had random freezing issues with Retrospect - but I had been laying it at Retrospect's door up until now - and they've never been this consistent. e.g. things like Retrospect just crashing in the middle of a weekend backup, or getting inconsistency errors. Even the disappearing library has happened once before, but repairing permissions on the Retrospect folder in app support fixed that after a reboot (unlike this time). I believe having the same LUN is cool (that's what I was told by our supplier), the different SCSI ids is what matters (ie it's ID->LUN on the tree, not the other way round). I was going to reboot tonight but the pressure is on with deadlines so may not be able to. I have a fall back backup which is the RAID but no offsites now which I'm a bit nervous about but we can cope with that risk. But from memory the ASP report looks exactly the same as before Retrospect's attempt to write to the tape. The Retrospect version is 6.1.138. RDU version is 6.1.13.101 Thanks for the feedback and help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Quote: Even the disappearing library has happened once before, but repairing permissions on the Retrospect folder in app support fixed that after a reboot (unlike this time). Interesting. Our Exabyte library would disappear, too, when we used the Apple SCSI card. That's what made us replace it with the ATTO UL4D. Never a problem since. (Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u PacketLoader (SCSI) with ethernet admin interface). Quote: I believe having the same LUN is cool (that's what I was told by our supplier), the different SCSI ids is what matters (ie it's ID->LUN on the tree, not the other way round). Ok. I just wanted to see a good, clean report from Apple System Profiler before the issues started, just to be sure everything looked ok after boot. Here's what ours shows: Code: PCI Cards: LSI,523: Name: LSILogic,raid Type: scsi-2 Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-2 Vendor ID: 0x1000 Device ID: 0x1960 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1000 Subsystem ID: 0x4523 Revision ID: 0x0001 ATTO ExpressPCI UL4D: Name: ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL4D Type: scsi-2 Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-3 Vendor ID: 0x117c Device ID: 0x0030 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x117c Subsystem ID: 0x8013 ROM Revision: 1.5.2 Revision ID: 0x0008 ATTO ExpressPCI UL4D: Name: ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL4D Type: scsi-2 Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-3 Vendor ID: 0x117c Device ID: 0x0030 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x117c Subsystem ID: 0x8013 ROM Revision: 1.5.2 Revision ID: 0x0008 bcom5704: Type: network Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-4 Vendor ID: 0x14e4 Device ID: 0x1648 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x106b Subsystem ID: 0x005a Revision ID: 0x0003 bcom5704: Type: network Bus: PCI Slot: SLOT-4 Vendor ID: 0x14e4 Device ID: 0x1648 Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x106b Subsystem ID: 0x005a Revision ID: 0x0003 Parallel SCSI: SCSI Parallel Domain 0: Initiator Identifier: 7 SCSI Target Device @ 16: Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: Logical Drive 0 Revision: SCSI Target Identifier: 16 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync Peripheral Device Type: 0 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Capacity: 50 GB Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: Logical Drive 0 Revision: Removable Media: Yes Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk1 OS9 Drivers: No SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported SCSI Target Device @ 17: Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: Logical Drive 1 Revision: SCSI Target Identifier: 17 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync Peripheral Device Type: 0 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Capacity: 417.42 GB Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: Logical Drive 1 Revision: Removable Media: Yes Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk3 OS9 Drivers: No SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported Volumes: disk3s3: Capacity: 417.29 GB Available: 277.55 GB Writable: Yes File System: Journaled HFS+ SCSI Target Device @ 63: Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: MEGARAIDDUMMYDEV Revision: 1.00 SCSI Target Identifier: 63 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync Peripheral Device Type: 31 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Manufacturer: MEGARAID Model: MEGARAIDDUMMYDEV Revision: 1.00 SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 SCSI Parallel Domain 1: Initiator Identifier: 7 SCSI Target Device @ 3: Manufacturer: SEAGATE Model: ST373405LW Revision: 0003 SCSI Target Identifier: 3 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync, DT SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync, DT Peripheral Device Type: 0 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Capacity: 68.37 GB Manufacturer: SEAGATE Model: ST373405LW Revision: 0003 Removable Media: Yes Detachable Drive: No BSD Name: disk0 OS9 Drivers: No SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported SCSI Parallel Domain 2: Initiator Identifier: 7 SCSI Target Device @ 0: Manufacturer: EXABYTE Model: VXA 1x10 1U Revision: A110 SCSI Target Identifier: 0 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync Peripheral Device Type: 8 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Manufacturer: EXABYTE Model: VXA 1x10 1U Revision: A110 SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 SCSI Target Device @ 1: Manufacturer: EXABYTE Model: VXA-2 Revision: 2122 SCSI Target Identifier: 1 SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync Peripheral Device Type: 1 SCSI Logical Unit @ 0: Manufacturer: EXABYTE Model: VXA-2 Revision: 2122 SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0 Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supportatcato Posted February 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 well, I also received a suggestion to try changing the SCSI ids (they are now 2 and 3 for library and drive respectively). It seems to be working. I've yet to run a scheduled backup (happening tonight) but hopefully this has fixed the issue. I only have this server for another 6 months then it is due for replacement, and going by this forum and other advice I'll be putting an ATTO card in the xserve :-D Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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