ADSM-L

I/O error reading tape label on Solaris ADSM

1999-12-30 10:16:04
Subject: I/O error reading tape label on Solaris ADSM
From: Matthew Glanville <matthew.glanville AT KODAK DOT COM>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 10:16:04 -0500
Just today I noticed some strange errors on all of our ADSM backup
servers.

Solaris 2.6, ADSM 3.1.2.40

Each one of our ADSM servers suddenly today had 2-3 'Unavailable' tapes.

All had this similar message in the activity log for each 'Unavailable'
tape.

12/29/99   12:44:38  ANR8355E I/O error reading label for volume DDR691
in
                      drive DRIVE1 (/dev/rmt/6mt).

Since it could not be a coincidence, somthing else must have caused the
I/O error.
From some investigating, we found a bunch of information messages
in the /var/adm/messages file

Dec 29 12:16:02 mrbackup unix: st19:     <Vendor 'QUANTUM ' Product
'DLT7000
   '>
Dec 29 12:16:02 mrbackup unix: st19 at SUNW,fas1:
Dec 29 12:16:02 mrbackup unix:  target 5 lun 0
Dec 29 12:16:02 mrbackup unix: st19 is
/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,fas@3,8800000/st@5,0
Dec 29 12:16:02 mrbackup unix: st19:     Variable record length I/O

We had similar problems with some tapes and labels in the past,
but not on all servers at the same time.

These messages are caused by the 'st' Solaris device driver being loaded
for
the drives.
These devices are not used by ADSM, the 'mt' drivers are.

What happened is that for y2k disaster preparation the program 'sysinfo'
was run.
This probed the system and loaded the 'st' devices drivers.

For whatever reason these appeared to have interfered with the 'mt'
drivers,
and caused the next group of tapes to be loaded in the drives to have
problems reading the label.

Is the solution to this to 'disable' the loading of the Solaris 'st'
device drivers?
This is not in any documents I have read for ADSM on SOlaris.

I am sure other people have had this problem before, maybe not realized
the cause.

Another example of being 'too' carful with y2k may cause unexpected
results.

--
matthew.glanville AT kodak DOT com
matthew.glanville AT kodak DOT com
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