Tape Drive

[chris11256]

Evening All,

 

Yesterday my Veam tape backup failed. We've got a HP 1/8 G2 autoloader which up until Monday morning has been working perfectly.

 

Veam itself is saying 'the tape drive has a problem with the application client interface:' I've ran the diagnostics program on the autoloader and it didn't report anything and I've also tried a different SAS cable. Just to test I also restarted the Veam server. Further in the Veam logs I've found 'Alert ID 32' which according to hpe documentation means 'Command Sending to robotic failed'

 

I'm able to run tasks through the autoloaders web interface such as moving tapes around and running an inventory. It just can't seem to do anything through Veam(including running the backup).

 

Any advice on whether it's a Veam issue or there is a hardware fault with the tape drive? It's at least 6 years old so there's no warranty on it.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[FragglePete]

We had our HP 1/8 G2 Autoloader go belly up last year, but it was just the drive itself that broke. Used a company called Ultratec who managed to repair the drive for £345. This is a LTO-5 model.

 

We have since upgraded to a LTO-8 drive which is fitting on one LTO-8M (re-formatted LTO-7 as you still can't buy LTO-8 tapes at present!) the whole school which before went over 3 (sometimes 4) LTO-5 tapes. The old G2 Autoloader is still in play as we still have monthly backups on LTO-5 from last year which we may need to restore from.

 

Not helping with your error, but may help point you in the right direction if you need it repaired.

 

Pete

[chris11256]

Thanks for that. After trying a few things on Veam I think it's a fault with the drive itself. It's perfectly happy moving tapes around and scanning the barcode on tapes, but I can't get it to read/write anything on a tape.

 

Will look into getting it fixed. Otherwise I think it'll be better looking into Veam Cloud Connect, as otherwise we're looking at £1500-£2000 for the new unit, plus about £50-£70 per tape for LTO 7 tapes.

[mikeprice]

Thanks for that. After trying a few things on Veam I think it's a fault with the drive itself. It's perfectly happy moving tapes around and scanning the barcode on tapes, but I can't get it to read/write anything on a tape.

 

Will look into getting it fixed. Otherwise I think it'll be better looking into Veam Cloud Connect, as otherwise we're looking at £1500-£2000 for the new unit, plus about £50-£70 per tape for LTO 7 tapes.

 

Although time is obviously a factor - this may the point where you need to move away from tapes and start looking at cloudy type backups

 

fix what you have at minimal cost and look at where to go long term????

[chris11256]

Just to update this for anyone that finds this thread. Looks like it's a bug in Veam B&R 9.5 Update 4B. Veeam have released a hotfix https://www.veeam.com/kb2983 and it's resolved my problem completely.

 

Glad I didn't replace the drive afterall(quoted cost of nearly £7K!) and have spent weeks scratching my head on this....

Edited August 16, 2019 by chris11256