Chik Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 Our Retrospect 6 server is erring out with an assertion check elem.c-918 message. The other two identical servers are fine. It's happened eight times in the last 10 days. I've tried several solutions: cleaned the tape drive, updated SCSI card driver, updated the RAID card firmware. I've also downgraded/upgraded the RDU file and created new storagesets. The error happens usually during polling. Problem is, it's intermittent although increasing in frequency lately. Yesterday it ran for 10 hours okay. Before this the server has been running okay for quite a while. Any thoughts? Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check at "elem.c-918" Mac OS X 10.5.8 Retrospect v6.1230 Update file 6.1.15.101 backing up to a Tape Library "jukebox" Qualstar TLS-4222 with Sony AIT-5 tape drive connects via ATTO express PCI UL5D SCSI card Mac Pro Quad core 2.8GHz with Apple RAID card 4GB RAM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted October 20, 2009 Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 What firmware and .kext driver do you have for the UL5D? Have you updated the firmware on the AIT drive? Have you tried running Sony diagnostics on the AIT drive? Sony AIT firmware and diagnostics Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chik Posted October 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 Thanks for the firmware link RH. I found an error in the tape library system. The tape drive setting was incorrect. It should have been set to Sony SDX-1100. It was set to SDX 700 in the Qualstar tape library system config menu. The MacOS and Retrospect identified the tape drive correctly however. In any event the tape library system is now set correctly. I updated firmware on the Sony tape drive. It's now version 0103.v11 The ATTO SCSI driver is the latest 4.4.0. The flash file is 320_2009_4_10. It'll be interesting to see what the logs say tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted October 21, 2009 Report Share Posted October 21, 2009 I doubt that the setting in the library system was the problem. Updating the drive firmware may help, though. You seem to be doing everything right. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chik Posted October 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2009 Still no luck. It seems to pass the Sony tape drive tests, Qualstar support will look at it. Does anyone have experience reading Retrospect's SCSI logs? Here is the SCSI logging output, which happens after a remote client backup, SCSI 4 is the Tape Library System, SCSI 1 is the Sony Tape drive: -Chik SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: (<00> passed 1 more times) SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:43:52 PM Read 00> [8 bytes] Sense > 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 c0 00 06 [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 00 00 3e f0 00 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:43:52 PM Read 80> [8 bytes] Sense > 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 cf 00 0b [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 00 00 3e f0 00 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:43:52 PM Read 00> [8 bytes] [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 1b 00 00 05 b4 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:43:52 PM Read 00> [1468 bytes] [1468 bytes] > 00 00 00 1b 00 00 05 b4 02 80 00 34 00 00 04 e0 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 30 31 38 rbtPvMCGetTagStatus: identifier len is zero drive id 1 has identifier "0007900875" rbtPvMCGetTagStatus: identifier len is zero SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:43:52 PM Command <00 00 00 00 00 00> SCSI SCSI-A:1:0: 6:43:52 PM Command <00 00 00 00 00 00> SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: (<00> passed 1 more times) SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:44:03 PM Read 00> [8 bytes] Sense > 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 c0 00 06 [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 00 00 3e f0 00 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:44:03 PM Read 80> [8 bytes] Sense > 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 cf 00 0b [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 00 00 3e f0 00 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:44:03 PM Read 00> [8 bytes] [8 bytes] > 00 00 00 1b 00 00 05 b4 SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:44:03 PM Read 00> [1468 bytes] [1468 bytes] > 00 00 00 1b 00 00 05 b4 02 80 00 34 00 00 04 e0 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 30 31 38 rbtPvMCGetTagStatus: identifier len is zero drive id 1 has identifier "0007900875" rbtPvMCGetTagStatus: identifier len is zero SCSI SCSI-A:4:0: 6:44:03 PM Command <00 00 00 00 00 00> Internal consistency check failed: Assertion check at "elem.c-918" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted October 22, 2009 Report Share Posted October 22, 2009 I think that Retrospect support will have to look at it, but it sounds like a hardware issue. Note that the Assertion check happened while talking with the Qualstar, not with the tape drive. The fact that the frequency of the error is increasing seems to indicate that something is failing. I assume that you have checked all of the usual things like SCSI terminator (you do have an active terminator, don't you?), cables, etc. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chik Posted October 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 Problem Solved. Fixing required removing Retro.Config file in Library/Preferences/Retro. This tip came from phone tech support. It's kind of a nasty solution because it requires re-inputting everything:Clients,Serial#'s, Storagesets,etc. I think I'll upgrade to 8 before this issue arises on the other 2 servers I run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted October 26, 2009 Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 Problem Solved. Fixing required removing Retro.Config file in Library/Preferences/Retro. This tip came from phone tech support. It's kind of a nasty solution because it requires re-inputting everything:Clients,Serial#'s, Storagesets,etc. Interesting. I had never seen that cause. The EMC tech support is good. Now that you have Retrospect up and running again, you should be able to retrieve an older (good) copy of this file from your backup set, from before the problem occurred. That would restore all of the information, scripts, etc. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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