Albert Eddie Contractor AFRPA/ESS wrote:

I don't know about the control arm thing.

But the thing we have in common was the premature marking tapes FULL at
80 GB and my library was SCSI attached using the same controller.

Very strange.   I did upgrade the firmware on the drives.   I had forgotten,

But now I"m going to have a look at the dates:

October 10 is when I moved the sony file:  sdx900v_0102.x90
There seems to be a relationship.

Density was erratic before that -- as low as 90 and as high as 180.
But now it's never above 80 gb.
I've NEVER gotten 200 gb on these tapes.   I have an ASC39160 controller

for this.   Right now I'm getting much more data on my AIT-3 tapes!
Really strange.   What version Linux are you using?   What driver?

Is it possible you/someone upgraded the firmware on your drive with(out)
your knowledge?

Could someone have upgraded the drivers for your drives with(out) your
knowledge?

While speaking to the elite tech support folks at Legato they said that
can happen when Legato Networker receives "too many" SCSI errors.

They didn't tell me how many was too many... Sorry.

Hope this helps.

Semper Fidelis, /ALE

Eddie Albert, Network Serf
Air Force Real Property Agency
Executive Services/Computer Systems
Desk (703) 696 - 5509 - Hip (703) 517-3855
Eddie.Albert AT afrpa.Pentagon.af DOT mil

-----Original Message-----

From: Legato NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On Behalf Of Matt Temple

Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 11:27 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] sudden change in tape capacity?

All,

      Something very strange has happened to my storage node...
First of all, the node is a 126-slot Qualstar with 3 AIT-4 drives.
For a number of months, this unit has worked well.   It's attached
to an HP server running Fedora core 1.   I know this isn't officially

supported, but has always worked flawlessly on both the server and this storage node.

         Something suddenly changed.   First, I had some really

weird robot-amr failures, including one instance where a tape was sitting ejected from one of the drives and there was a tape

in the gripper arm waiting to be inserted.   I haven't seen that in
all of the 7 years I've been using Networker.   On at least

one occasion, I've attempted to move a tape with the library front panel and received a message that the source was empty

(ejected tape) when it clearly was not.   And suddenly, the tapes

are being marked full with about 80 GB (these are AIT-4) with no error messages showing up. I'm using an Adaptec 39320A and the AIC79XX driver. This is a dual channel card and I've switched the two cables around -- no change -- just erratic behavior, and occasional time when the robot arm doesn't move on program command (it always moves by front panel)

I plan to install a different SCSI card -- 39160 to see if there's any

change.   Any ideas of what's going on?   Does this kind of erratic
scenario seem familiar to anyone?

Matt Temple

--
=============================================================
Matthew Temple                Tel:    617/632-2597
Director, Research Computing  Fax:    617/582-7820
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute  mht AT research.dfci.harvard DOT edu
44 Binney Street, LG300/300   http://research.dfci.harvard.edu
Boston, MA 02115              Choice is the Choice!

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--
=============================================================
Matthew Temple                Tel:    617/632-2597
Director, Research Computing  Fax:    617/582-7820
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute  mht AT research.dfci.harvard DOT edu
44 Binney Street, LG300/300   http://research.dfci.harvard.edu
Boston, MA 02115              Choice is the Choice!

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and type 
"signoff networker" in the
body of the email. Please write to networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu 
if you have any problems
wit this list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER