colleyryan Posted April 25, 2003 Report Share Posted April 25, 2003 I have seen this topic discussed at length all over these forums, but have yet to find a fix for my problem. Any help is appriciated. I will list as much information on my setup as possible. I am having the SAME problem with TWO different computers and TWO different Sony AIT autoloaders. If I do a clean install of Retrospect with the RDU, Retrospect will see my drives properly, and will give me the loader menu to control the tapes. It will also successfully auto-run a backup at night, properly finding the media. However, it only will work one time. After one succesfull backup, retrospect will still see the device in the device list, however the loader menu is gone, and it will not auto-run at night, instead it will time out waiting for media. Again, I can reinstall Retrospect, and it will again work once. This is happenining the same on both of my servers, using either drive on either server. I have tried different cabeling, SCSI ID's both high and low to no avail. It works without problem using Retrospect in Mac OS 9.x. Please help!! Hardware Server 1: PowerMacintosh G4/500mhz ATTO EPCI-UL2D Sony TSL-A300c @ SCSI-A:4 (Driver Sony AIT DC (5.02)) Software Server 1: Mac OS Server 10.2.4 Retrospect Workgroup 5.0.238 RDU 3.4.103 (Loading Properly) Hardware Server 2: Xerver Dual G4/1.3ghz ATTO EPCI-UL3D-66 Sony TSL-A500c @ SCSI-A:4 (Driver Sony AIT DC (5.02)) Software Server 2: Mac OS Server 10.2.4 Retrospect Workgroup 5.0.238 RDU 3.4.103 (Loading Properly) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlucia Posted April 26, 2003 Report Share Posted April 26, 2003 Hi Ryan, I have not these issues with my Xserve and the Sony SDX-500c Autoloader. However, I know that Retrospect has issues locating the loader on almost all of it's Sony drivers - ranging from the drives we are using to our clients Stor Stations. I can reproduce the "cannot find Loader" issue in Retrospect everytime. Just keep Retrospect Open and Eject the magazine. Retrospect will not recover from that. The first suggestion I have is to make sure you have the proper firmware on the Atto card....I had a problem with that in the beginning and it was driving me crazy. Second, the trick which I have used to insure that I don't have any problems is naming @ least 2 tapes in the 4 tape set. For example, if your backup set is called 04-03, then (when you can access the loader option) erase the first two tapes (short erase) and name them 1-<Backup Set Name>, 2-<Backup Set Name>. If they are named correctly, you should see a little M (it might be in a cirle - don't remember) to the left of the tape name once it is erased. One other note, I also perform the following after I install new tapes or reset the backup set. Quit Retrospect Eject the Magazine Reinsert the Magazine Manually Load Tape 1 Once Tape 1 is loaded and "Ready" - It must be in the ready state or Retrospect won't see the loader Launch Retrospect Check devices, you should have the Loader tab. I have not had a Retrospect failure to backup since I installed it back in November 02. Hopefully, this will help you get more than a day of backup Regards Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colleyryan Posted April 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2003 Jeff, I appreciate the feedback. I am using ATTO's latest FirmWare on both cards. Also, all of my tapes are already named. I too could go through the task of quiting, relaunching, and device checking retrospect every night before running a backup. But my point is (for any Retrospect employees reading this) is that you shouldn't have to. I am using "certified" tape drives with a "certified" scsi cards. I should be able to have backup scripts run unattended without having to "tweak" it each time. I did load the 3.5 Driver Update from yesterday, however, this did not fix the problem. Anyone else have any ideas?? Thanks, Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted May 1, 2003 Report Share Posted May 1, 2003 Quote: However, it only will work one time. After one succesfull backup, retrospect will still see the device in the device list, however the loader menu is gone, and it will not auto-run at night, instead it will time out waiting for media. Again, I can reinstall Retrospect, and it will again work once. This is happenining the same on both of my servers, using either drive on either server. I have tried different cabeling, SCSI ID's both high and low to no avail. It works without problem using Retrospect in Mac OS 9.x. Is this magazine being unloaded between backup attempts? Is the loader door opened for any reason? Are you getting any media timeout errors? How are your Energy settings configured for the OS? What happens if you do an Immediate Backup to the loader and then look at Configure > Devices. Is the loader seen? If so, quit Retrospect and relaunch - is the loader still seen? Try setting two automated backups to run a few minutes in the future - does the problem replicate? Try setting your SCSI ID's as follows: Tape 2, Library 5. If this doesn't work, try Tape 2, Library 3. Is there anything else on the SCSI bus? If so, isolate the library - unhook all other devices and ensure the library is properly terminated. Make sure the pin configuration on the drive matches the pin configuration on the SCSI card. If your storage device has a wide 68-pin interface, make sure it is connected to a wide 68-pin SCSI adapter. Many issues have been found when wide devices have been connected to a narrow 50-pin or 25-pin SCSI adapter when using Mac OS X and therefore this is not a supported configuration. The behavior your are seeing is not normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colleyryan Posted May 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2003 Quote: Is this magazine being unloaded between backup attempts? Yes, the magazine is typically unloaded before each backup and replaced with a different magazine. However, I have tried leaving the same magazine in multiple days in a row. I also have tried inserting the magazine without manually loading a tape, and with. Quote: Is the loader door opened for any reason? No, the loader door is never open. Quote: Are you getting any media timeout errors? Yes, that is exactly what you get when a script fails. Or, if you turn the warning off, you just get a script stopped at the scheduled stop time error. Quote: How are your Energy settings configured for the OS? Both machines are set to never sleep, spin down, or dim the monitor. Quote: What happens if you do an Immediate Backup to the loader and then look at Configure > Devices. Is the loader seen? If so, quit Retrospect and relaunch - is the loader still seen? If you do an immediate backup, the loader is not seen after completion. If you quit Retrospect and relaunch, it is still not seen. The only way to see the loader is to either click the devices button and rescan a few times, or restart. Quote: Try setting two automated backups to run a few minutes in the future - does the problem replicate? Yes, if you run two automated backups back to back, the problem does exist, on both servers. Quote: Try setting your SCSI ID's as follows: Tape 2, Library 5. If this doesn't work, try Tape 2, Library 3. We tried this on both computers, and still no luck. Running the back to back script test still reproduced the error. Quote: Is there anything else on the SCSI bus? If so, isolate the library - unhook all other devices and ensure the library is properly terminated. No, there is no other device on the SCSI bus on either computer. Both drives are properly terminated, although we have tested with multiple types of termination and even unterminated. Quote: Make sure the pin configuration on the drive matches the pin configuration on the SCSI card. If your storage device has a wide 68-pin interface, make sure it is connected to a wide 68-pin SCSI adapter. Many issues have been found when wide devices have been connected to a narrow 50-pin or 25-pin SCSI adapter when using Mac OS X and therefore this is not a supported configuration. The cables and cards on both machines are the same pins on both ends. We have also tried new cables. Quote: The behavior your are seeing is not normal. Your'e tellin me!! The funny thing is, I can setup a brand new computer from scratch, with yet another sony tape drive, and replicate this behavior every time. We are now up to 5 servers that are having the same problem. They are not running any other applications other than Mac OS X server, and the only service is Apple File Sharing. I am tempted to backrev to Mac OS 9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyJ Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 Do you have a cleaning tape in the drive? Quote: However, it only will work one time. After one succesfull backup, retrospect will still see the device in the device list, however the loader menu is gone, and it will not auto-run at night, instead it will time out waiting for media. Do you see the slots in the Storage Devices window? If you go to the Device Status window at this point, are both the drive and the loader seen? When this happens, how do the drive and loader show up in the Apple System Profiler? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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