Retrospect 4.3 and mammoth 2

[mattc5inc]

I've been working with retrospect for years. Just the desktop/local backups. I've had great success with 9 gig backups to exabyte 8500-aliant 820 drives.

 

Now I've got a new setup. I have a large FibreChannel network. 800gig. I back this up using a Mammoth2 autoloader.

 

I've been having some problems with this for quite some time and finally have a moment to ask some questions.

 

 

 

1st. Often times I've seen the drive come to the end of the tape. The software posts "updating catalog" then "trouble writing catalog insert new tape". I insert a new tape and life goes on.

 

I use only exabyte mammoth2 self cleaning tapes the drive is less than a year old. Did this backup truly work or did I just lose information? Why would it have trouble writing? Is it the fact that it just backed up 50 gig?

 

Any suggestions as to how backup large drives with the best success would be appreciated.

[AmyJ]

Are you getting any messages in the Retrospect operations log?

[mattc5inc]

I Believe this was supposed to be 43gig of information to be backed up. It ran for a long time, then ran out of tape (specualtion on my part). The operation changed to writing directory. Then I got this warning. Trouble writing: “7-Wire Start 7/3/02” (3325265152), error 206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.

 

Then simply asked for the next tape and it continued without a problem.

 

I dont' know if that means the part before the tape switch was lost?

 

Here is the log of that execution.

 

Thanks

 

Matt

 

 

 

 

 

? Retrospect version 4.3

 

launch at 8/8/2002 9:10 AM

 

+ Advanced Driver Kit, version 1.9

 

 

 

+ Normal Backup using Wire Firewire Drives at 8/8/2002 9:11 AM

 

To backup set Wire Start 7/3/02…

 

 

 

- 8/8/2002 9:11:24 AM: Copying WIRE 109-111

 

Trouble writing: “7-Wire Start 7/3/02” (3325265152), error 206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.).

 

Additional error information for device "Exabyte Mammoth DC" [3:1],

 

Sense > f1 00 03 00 00 00 00 18 00 00 00 ff 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

(EXABYTE |Mammoth2 |v03n)

 

8/8/2002 10:54:06 AM: 1 execution errors

 

Completed: 5779 files, 22.5 GB

 

Performance: 239.8 MB/minute

 

Duration: 01:42:42 (00:07:02 idle/loading/preparing)

[mko]

i have the same problem as above.

i updated my mammoth 2 with the actually firmware v07g. but the same probleme occures.

when I start a new backup it will work for about 100 - 400 MB of 2 GB data and then comes the same error

 

-206 (drive reported a failure: dirty heads, bad media, etc.

Then simply asked for the next tape and I give him the next tape and the same problems starts again.

 

Restoring is no problem.

 

any suggestions?

thanks

mko

 

 

[natew]

Hi

 

If this happens with new tapes too then there is likely a problem with the write head on your tape drive. If it has been working fine until now mechanical failure of some kind becomes more likely.

 

Obvious question but you do clean the drive regularly right?

 

Nate

[mko]

yes, I clean it regularly. With smartclean from the mammoth tapes. And I buyed a Mammoth cleaning cartridge. The drive shows me " Lastclean: 0:30 Hrs".

 

Should I give the drive to a support center? they should remove the mechanical failure?

A new Mammoth 2 drive costs about 5000 Euro. It very much. I am thinking about to change to a Sony AIT 2 drive.

 

regards

mko

 

 

 

[natew]

Hi

 

I would try the drive on another computer just to be safe. There is a possibility that a software change on the computer is causing the problem. If mammoth has any drive test utilities I would run those too.

 

It may just be a good time for that AIT drive though...

 

Nate