Networker

Re: [Networker] If you use AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives....

2003-09-10 14:41:20
Subject: Re: [Networker] If you use AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives....
From: Ed Ortiz <Edward_Ortiz AT SSA-SA.SEL.SONY DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:40:46 -0500
Craig, I've been using AIT-2 tapes in my AIT-3 drive equipped jukebox as well.  
I have a Cybernetics CY-TL8-2015 Jukebox which is basically a Spectralogic 2K 
jukebox.  I only use AIT-2 tapes to provide compatibility with an existing 
AIT-2 jukebox.  I get anywhere from 45 GB-165 GB per tape depending on the kind 
of data I'm backing up.  I'm using the hardware compression on the tape drive 
and only use Sony tapes.  The Networker server is Solaris 2.6, Networker  
v6.0.3.  Are the DIP switches on the tape drive set for HP-UX?  When I first 
received my unit I had to change the DIP switch settings for Solaris.  It had 
something to do with variable block size and compression settings.  If you want 
I can send you documentation in PDF format describing the DIP switches on the 
drive.

Ed Ortiz

>>> Craig.Ruefenacht AT US.USANA DOT COM 9/10/03 12:50:34 PM >>>
Hi everyone,

This message is for anyone using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 tape drives.

We are currently using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 tape drives on a SpectraLogic
64000.  Why we don't use AIT-3 media in our AIT-3 drives is a mystery to me
(the configuration was purchased and installed before I got here).

Our Networker server is HP-UX 11i, Networker 6.1.3 Network Edition.  Our
AIT-3 tape drives do not use hardware compression.  Any compression we do is
done in software via Networker.  We have two tape pools.  Our UNIX clients
go onto one tape pool and our Novell/Windows clients go onto the second tape
pool.  Over the past 8 months since I've been here, the average amount of
data written to the AIT-2 tapes using AIT-3 drives are as follows:

        Unix tape pool: 40 Gbyte
        Novell/Windows tape pool: 28.5 Gbyte

AIT-2 tape capacity is supposed to be 50 Gbyte.....

Some of our tapes would achieve 49 Gbyte used capacity, but as the above
averages show, many tapes didn't store much.

Three months ago we purchased some certified AIT-2 media from SpectraLogic
and started using it.  There was one tape that was completely unusable and
so we got it replaced.  Three other of the tapes were unable to hold more
than about 1 Gbyte of data.  Networker's logs would show entries like this:

-------------------
07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media warning: verification of volume "C75738",
volid 612632065 failed, read open error, No such device or
 address
07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media notice: verification of volume "C75738", volid
612632065 failed, volume is being marked as full.
07/27/03 23:12:23 nsrd: media notice: Save set (614482433)
slc-corp-s1:<1>VOL1: volume C75738 on /dev/rmt/c8t1d0BESTnb is being te
rminated because: Media verification failed
-------------------

I did a little research on AIT-2/AIT-3 drives and media, and all the stuff I
was able to find said that AIT-3 drives were backwards compatible with AIT-2
media and there shouldn't be any problem using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives.
A tech note on SpectraLogic's web site said that although Sony stood by this
claim, some clients of SpectraLogic were experiencing problems with AIT-2
media in AIT-3 drives, and SpectraLogic was recommended that all their
clients using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives to migrate to AIT-3 media.

So I inquired SpectraLogic about this whole thing, and the tech support
person who got back with me said that Sony had released a firmware upgrade
for the AIT-3 drives that should resolve many of the problems that people
have been experiencing when using AIT-2 media in AIT-3 drives, and could fix
our problem(s) as well.

SpectraLogic sent me the firmware update tape, I updated our AIT-3 drives to
the new firmware, and in the 3 weeks since, every single tape in both tape
pools have achieved 49 Gbyte capacity, without any problems.  I've yet to
see any of our AIT-2 tapes show a 50 Gbyte used capacity, but 49 Gbyte is
close enough for me.

Our AIT-3 tape drives were running on firmware version 0101.0034.  The
firmware we upgraded to is version 0201_CY15

If anyone is using AIT-2 media with AIT-3 tape drives, I recommend that you
contact your hardware vendor and inquire about a firmware upgrade to your
AIT-3 tape drives, especially if you are seeing capacity problems or "no
such device or address" errors.  I don't suspect that many people fit this
profile, but if you do, I thought I'd pass along the stuff we found out.

--
Craig Ruefenacht
UNIX Systems Administrator
USANA Health Sciences, Inc.
http://www.usanahealthsciences.com 



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