Networker

Re: [Networker] Problem reading tape labels?

2009-03-10 15:52:10
Subject: Re: [Networker] Problem reading tape labels?
From: George Sinclair <George.Sinclair AT NOAA DOT GOV>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:46:47 -0400
A Darren Dunham wrote:
On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 01:14:15PM -0400, George Sinclair wrote:
03/10/09 10:17:09 nsrd: media info: About to start checking label
03/10/09 10:17:09 nsrd: media info: Not a valid networker label
03/10/09 10:17:09 nsrd: media info: expected volume 'vol1' got '-'.
03/10/09 10:17:10 nsrd: media info: Label check failed, marking savesets suspect and volume vol1 full.
 [...]
My question, and it might seem silly, is would upgrading the firmware really resolve an issue like this? Would a newer version of the firmware somehow try harder to read a label? Has anyone seen firmware issues that caused this mischief?

The label is just data that happens to be at the beginning of the tape.
So from my point of view there's only a couple of things that can be
happening.  Either Networker is doing something wrong and reading or
interpreting the data from the tape incorrectly or the tape drive
(drivers, OS, etc..) are returning bad data to the app.
If it's the latter, I'd be worried about data integrity more than the
annoyances of having the data marked suspect and marking the volume
full.  It's possible that bad firmware could do anything.  Maybe after a
rewind it claims the drive is ready before it really is and causes
Networker's check to screw up.  That could be fixed by new firmware.

Hmm ... yes, I concur.


I'm assuming you can run nsrim -p or nsrjb -p on any of these tapes and
always see the correct label?

I hadn't tried using 'nsrjb -p', only 'nsrjb -I' and that sometimes works and sometimes fails with the message about the 'NULL' label, and also sometimes fails on some different volume that was previously working. But, I have found that if I repeat the tests in a different drive, it often works, and all the drives are at the same firmware, although an older release.

Didn't realize nsrim had a '-p' option? Didn't think this managed tapes, only indexes?

What if nsrjb offers mixed results but scanner always sees the label?


If I've got a problem and my vendor is recommending a firmware upgrade,
I'd probably go along with it just to advance things.  Otherwise if I'm
troubleshooting they're going to think in the back of their minds that
it's the firmware and I'm stupid for not upgrading...


Good point.

--
George Sinclair
Voice: (301) 713-3284 x210
- The preceding message is personal and does not reflect any official or unofficial position of the United States Department of Commerce -
- Any opinions expressed in this message are NOT those of the US Govt. -

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