Re: [out of tape error] and other strange msgs


--On Wednesday, January 07, 2004 22:23:27 +0100 Karsten Fuhrmann 
<karsten_fuhrmann AT cartoon-film DOT de> wrote:

> Dear list,
> 
> i am using amanda to backup some filesystem on my server.
> I am using amanda version 2.4.4p1 on a FreeBSD 4.8
> I use tar to backup only parts of the tree, small enough to fit on a single 
> tape.
> The tapes i use are DLT-IV tapes and the drive is an DLT-8000.
> 
> This should mean i can backup about 40G on a single tape. I am using software 
> compression and turned off hw compression on the drive.
> But today it happend that even a dump with a compressed size of 33075 MB 
> failed to dump because of a tape error [out of tape]
> *** A TAPE ERROR OCCURRED: [[writing file: short write]].

Look for the taper line in your report, it should tell you how many bytes
were written when it got the error.   If it is much less than the size of
your tape it is probably a bad tape or dirty heads.
   If it is nearer the size of the tape, you might have too big of a
length set in your tapetype, you may have hardware compression on also
and not realize it, or you may be bypassing the holdingdisk on a slow
backup preventing streaming to tape, causing the tape to constantly
reposition itself (and waste tape in the process).

Frank

> 
> And in my system log i found these lines :
> 
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): WRITE FILEMARKS. CDB: 10 0 0 
> 0 2 0
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): Deferred Error: ABORTED 
> COMMAND info:7fff csi:0,7,dd,9d asc:44,89
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): Vendor Specific ASCQ
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): WRITE FILEMARKS. CDB: 10 0 0 
> 0 2 0
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): MEDIUM ERROR info:2 
> csi:0,7,dd,9d asc:c,0
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): Write error
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): failed to write terminating 
> filemark(s)
> Jan  7 19:47:37 stern /kernel: (sa0:ahc0:0:6:0): tape is now frozen- use an 
> OFFLINE, REWIND or MTEOM command to clear this state.
> 
> This happens quite often the last times when using amanda.
> 
> How can this happen. Is there something wrong in my thoughts ?



-- 
Frank Smith                                      fsmith AT hoovers DOT com
Systems Administrator                           Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                   Fax: 512-374-4501