I agree.  We have a Spectralogic T50e with 3 IBM LT04 drives.  We've had to 
replace a number of them over the year and a half we've had the library.  One 
thing you can do if you have IBM drives is to get the IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool 
to help analyze the problems.  I run the "Test" in it once a week on each drive 
to proactively detect problems before they reach the failure point.

You can get the ITDT at:  http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral

Under System Storage/Tapesystems/Tape drivers and software/IBM Tape Diagnostic 
Tool

Dave Werth
Garmin AT, Inc.
Salem, Oregon
-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On 
Behalf Of Frank Swasey
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 5:58 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Tapes marked full prematurely

I have a Qualstar XLS with 14 IBM LTO4 drives and I had massive problems with 
tapes being
marked full prematurely.

After getting a lot of free tape drive replacements (covered under the 
maintenance agreement),
I finally was told that the way the LTO4 drives ask to be cleaned is a HUGE 
problem.  The LTO4
drive (at least IBM's... but I assume this is the generic LTO4 spec) will 
realize it is dirty
and needs to be cleaned, but it will not raise the necessary TapeAlert back to 
NetWorker except
during the tape ejection process.

Now, if your tapes sit in the drive until they are full (which is the NetWorker 
default), I
think you can see how a tape drive could be filthy for a LONG time and never 
ask to be
cleaned.  I have been forced to figure out how frequently my drives need to be 
cleaned to
reduce (I have not eliminated) the issue.  Some of my drives (that see lots of 
tapes every day
of the week) have to be cleaned every 3 days.  That tends to wear the drive out 
in a little
over a year.  So, you will definitely want to keep the maintenance agreement 
current on your
library/drives!

Frank

On 6/8/12 7:50 AM, Ronald Benvenuto wrote:
> Hello All,
>
>
>
>  I am running Networker 7.6.1 on a windows 2003 server and am backing up to a 
> Dell ML6020 with 6 fiber channel LT04 drives.  all of my backups that use two 
> of the 6 drives will work just fine, the other four drives will start backups 
> and mark the tape as full after as little as 40GB and as much as few hundred 
> gb's but never to it's full native or compressed capacity, once it marks it 
> full i cannot append to that tape again. The only way to use it is to 
> re-label it.
>
>
>
>  Has anyone else seen this problem before and know how to fix it ?
>
>
>
>  thanks much,
>
>
>
>  Ron Benvenuto
>
> Sr. System Administrator
>
> SRI International Sarnoff
>
> 201 Washington Road
>
> Princeton, New Jersey 08540
>
> Phone: 609-734-2401

--
Frank Swasey                    | http://www.uvm.edu/~fcs
Sr Systems Administrator        | Always remember: You are UNIQUE,
University of Vermont           |    just like everyone else.
  "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)


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