This could be a compatibility issue.
We have had similar problems when the tape drive blocksize on one
of our five aix servers was set to a fixed size,   ie 512  as  opposed to '0' .
When another server tried to use the tape, errors occurred.



Pete 

Robert.peterson AT gbe DOT com

>>> "Collins, Kathy" <KCollins AT coral-energy DOT com> 01/10/01 10:01AM >>>
This is a status update to a message I posted back in November.  I have been
attempting to resolve our media write errors in NetBackup.  Our problem of
getting
these errors once or twice a night eventually only occurred on one drive,
which
we had already replaced once.  We had the drive replaced a second time, and
still saw the errors just on that drive.  Then we switched this drive with
another
to see if the problem followed the drive or stayed with the location.  It
followed
the drive.  We had the drive replaced a third time about a week ago and
haven't
seen the write errors on the drive since.  

The next day we got two write errors on two other drives, drives that have
never 
had this error before.  We have also seen a few ioctl (MTWEOF) and (MTWFSF) 
errors on the drive that we replaced.  These errors freeze the tape
immediately.  
I'm not convinced that these tapes are bad.

I had a few replies from people on the list with similar problems, both
stating that
the problem has never gone away, no matter what they tried.  Both replaced
drives
several times.   

We have the same version of NetBackup installed on an Ultra 2 connected to
an
L3500 with none of the above problems.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on what I can try to stop these
errors
from occurring?  Are there lots of you having the same problem?  Or is it
just the
three of us?

Thanks,
Kathy

>  -----Original Message-----
> From:         Collins, Kathy  
> Sent: Monday, November 20, 2000 4:05 PM
> To:   'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu' 
> Subject:      media write errors - 84
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm using NetBackup 3.2 with Solaris 2.6 on an E450 connected to an
> L11000.
> I upgraded from NetBackup 3.2 patch 328 to patch 363 on November 3rd.
> About a week later, 
> our media errors came along much more frequently.  Although the errors
> appear the same as
> previous media error in the messages log, the wording is different in the
> Problems report of
> NetBackup.   Here is a log I've been keeping with the stats on the errors.
> Sometimes it looks
> like a drive problem, sometimes like a tape problem.  These tapes all have
> only 15 to 20 mounts.
> The actual error reads "cannot write image to media id DOA763, drive index
> 2, I/O error", whereas
> previous media errors read "write error on media id...".  Both show up
> with a status code of 84.
> 
> 11/11 20:33 DOA763  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/12 09:33 DOA871  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/13 07:16 DOA885  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> -
> replaced drive index 5 (/dev/rmt/5)
> -
> 11/13 20:57 DOA656  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/14 07:19 DOA885  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/14 20:35 DOA860  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/16 06:47 DOA651  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/16 07:37 DOA651  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/16 18:35 DOA651  drive index 5  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/16 23:22 DOA878  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/17 18:37 DOA860  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/19 19:45 DOA773  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/20 02:34 DOA773  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 11/20 06:58 DOA763  drive index 2  cannot write image to media id...
> 
> I'm having drive index 2 replaced tomorrow, although it didn't stop
> the errors in drive index 5.  Does anyone know of this problem and if
> it could be related to patch 363?  Any recommendations on what patch
> I should jump to assuming that it may be related to the patch?  If I
> go directly to 3.4, will I be able to restore my data that was backed
> up with 3.2?
> 
> Thanks for any feedback.
> Regards,
> Kathy
> 
> 
> Kathy Collins
> Coral Energy, L.L.P
> Phone: 713.230.3426
> kcollins AT coral-energy DOT com 
> 
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