Hi, I am getting an intermittent error on my LTO 3 drive. It is a HP StorageWorks 920 internal SCSI drive. Sometimes backups work and sometimes tar will fail with this error: tar: /dev/st3: Cannot write: Input/output error tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now I have tried 3 old tapes and one brand new tape. It has happened on all of them. I have also run two different cleaning cartridges through the drive. Also it always fails in a different place. Sometimes it runs for 5 minutes when the error comes up, other times for an hour or so. sometimes not at all and the backup works. If I look on the monitor connected to the server I see this error: 10:0:3:0 Error on write file mark Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol. Paul -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Paul Groves wrote:
Hi,
I am getting an intermittent error on my LTO 3 drive. It is a HP StorageWorks 920 internal SCSI drive.
Sometimes backups work and sometimes tar will fail with this error:
tar: /dev/st3: Cannot write: Input/output error tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
I have tried 3 old tapes and one brand new tape. It has happened on all of them. I have also run two different cleaning cartridges through the drive.
Also it always fails in a different place. Sometimes it runs for 5 minutes when the error comes up, other times for an hour or so. sometimes not at all and the backup works.
If I look on the monitor connected to the server I see this error:
10:0:3:0 Error on write file mark
Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol.
A cleaning tape maybe? I reserve the alcohol and cotton buds for the really bad cases. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (13.2°C) http://www.cloudsuisse.com/ - your owncloud, hosted in Switzerland. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 2017-03-16 13:36, Per Jessen wrote:
Paul Groves wrote:
Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol.
A cleaning tape maybe? I reserve the alcohol and cotton buds for the really bad cases.
I have little experience with these digital tapes, but with the analog audio tapes I've never used cleaning tape, but instead had a go at cleaning the heads directly with a cotton rod impregnated in spirit. Alcohol. I think the cleaning tapes are slightly abrasive. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" (Minas Tirith))
Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 2017-03-16 13:36, Per Jessen wrote:
Paul Groves wrote:
Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol.
A cleaning tape maybe? I reserve the alcohol and cotton buds for the really bad cases.
I have little experience with these digital tapes, but with the analog audio tapes I've never used cleaning tape, but instead had a go at cleaning the heads directly with a cotton rod impregnated in spirit. Alcohol.
I think the cleaning tapes are slightly abrasive.
FYI, cleaning cartridges are always used in tape libraries. Every so many operations, the cleaning cartridge goes in, it's standard. Libraries typically have dedicated slots for them. Some drives will ask for the cleaning cartridge themselves - by sending an alert or by displaying e.g. a "C" on the display. I don't know what they're made of, but it's not sandpaper :-) https://www.amazon.com/Ultrium-Universal-Cleaning-Cartridge-01X024/dp/B002HE... -- Per Jessen, Zürich (11.0°C) http://www.dns24.ch/ - your free DNS host, made in Switzerland. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 2017-03-17 09:13, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
A cleaning tape maybe? I reserve the alcohol and cotton buds for the really bad cases.
I have little experience with these digital tapes, but with the analog audio tapes I've never used cleaning tape, but instead had a go at cleaning the heads directly with a cotton rod impregnated in spirit. Alcohol.
I think the cleaning tapes are slightly abrasive.
FYI, cleaning cartridges are always used in tape libraries. Every so many operations, the cleaning cartridge goes in, it's standard. Libraries typically have dedicated slots for them. Some drives will ask for the cleaning cartridge themselves - by sending an alert or by displaying e.g. a "C" on the display.
I don't know what they're made of, but it's not sandpaper :-)
Some audio tapes had the leader tape made of cleaning tape. It was just tape that was not smooth, had some rugosity, and made of different material. But I simply cleaned the heads, which were easy enough to reach, with one of those bathroom cotton roads impregnated with surgical spirit. Dissolves the dirt easily. Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 42.2 x86_64 "Malachite" (Minas Tirith))
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result.
oh, I missed that. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (14.2°C) http://www.hostsuisse.com/ - dedicated server rental in Switzerland. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 17/03/17 10:23, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result.
oh, I missed that.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. So many in fact I will just answer them all in one message. Yes I tried a universal HP cleaning cartridge and a LTO3 Quantum cleaning cartridge and this made no difference. The drive Clean LED had not come on. I have 3 other tape drives on the same SCSI controller and I have no issue with any of them. Yes I have a terminator on the end of the cable (It came on the cable). I am backing up using tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1" "/srv/folder2" "/srv/folder3" "/srv/folder4" etc... I tried a large 200GB ish backup: (just one folder e.g. tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1") and this has worked. It seems to fail when I specify lots of files. The only problem here is the folder does not fit on one LTO3 cartridge. This leads me back to two questions I asked earlier in the year which I had no success in resolving. 1. How do I verify tar and split between multiple tapes at the same time when W and m don't work together? 2. How do I turn on hardware compression on a tape drive in linux (what command)? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Sat, Mar 18, 2017 at 3:51 AM, Paul Groves
On 17/03/17 10:23, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result.
oh, I missed that.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. So many in fact I will just answer them all in one message.
Yes I tried a universal HP cleaning cartridge and a LTO3 Quantum cleaning cartridge and this made no difference.
The drive Clean LED had not come on.
I have 3 other tape drives on the same SCSI controller and I have no issue with any of them.
Yes I have a terminator on the end of the cable (It came on the cable).
I am backing up using tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1" "/srv/folder2" "/srv/folder3" "/srv/folder4" etc...
I tried a large 200GB ish backup: (just one folder e.g. tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1") and this has worked. It seems to fail when I specify lots of files.
I hope you are still only invoking tar once, not once per file? Try ensuring every invocation of tar writes at least a GB of data. If you are already calling tar with at least a GB of data every time, add a buffer between tar and the actual tape. Something like: tar ... | mbuffer -m 128M -p 90 -o /dev/st0 I don't use mbuffer anymore, so I might have the syntax on that wrong. If you have plenty of ram, increase the 128M parameter. Maybe 512M is better for an LTO-3. I used 128M with a LTO-1.
The only problem here is the folder does not fit on one LTO3 cartridge. This leads me back to two questions I asked earlier in the year which I had no success in resolving.
1. How do I verify tar and split between multiple tapes at the same time when W and m don't work together?
I don't recall ever doing it, so I can't help.
2. How do I turn on hardware compression on a tape drive in linux (what command)?
Asked and answered: http://markmail.org/message/j5tf6ywlsd2dxd4p If you don't understand the answer, ask for clarification, but you control tape drives modes via /etc/stinit.def And you have 4 modes per drive you get to define: /dev/st0 /dev/st0l (zero ell) /dev/st0m /dev/st0a More detail in the earlier answer. Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 03/18/2017 03:51 AM, Paul Groves wrote:
On 17/03/17 10:23, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result.
oh, I missed that.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. So many in fact I will just answer them all in one message.
Yes I tried a universal HP cleaning cartridge and a LTO3 Quantum cleaning cartridge and this made no difference.
The drive Clean LED had not come on.
I have 3 other tape drives on the same SCSI controller and I have no issue with any of them.
Yes I have a terminator on the end of the cable (It came on the cable).
I am backing up using tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1" "/srv/folder2" "/srv/folder3" "/srv/folder4" etc...
I tried a large 200GB ish backup: (just one folder e.g. tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1") and this has worked. It seems to fail when I specify lots of files. The only problem here is the folder does not fit on one LTO3 cartridge. This leads me back to two questions I asked earlier in the year which I had no success in resolving.
1. How do I verify tar and split between multiple tapes at the same time when W and m don't work together?
Multivolume would be -M *not* -m. It is case sensitive. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 18/03/17 15:03, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:
On 03/18/2017 03:51 AM, Paul Groves wrote:
On 17/03/17 10:23, Per Jessen wrote:
Carlos E. R. wrote:
Anyway, the OP mentioned using cleaning tape (twice?), no result.
oh, I missed that.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. So many in fact I will just answer them all in one message.
Yes I tried a universal HP cleaning cartridge and a LTO3 Quantum cleaning cartridge and this made no difference.
The drive Clean LED had not come on.
I have 3 other tape drives on the same SCSI controller and I have no issue with any of them.
Yes I have a terminator on the end of the cable (It came on the cable).
I am backing up using tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1" "/srv/folder2" "/srv/folder3" "/srv/folder4" etc...
I tried a large 200GB ish backup: (just one folder e.g. tar -cvWf "/srv/folder1") and this has worked. It seems to fail when I specify lots of files. The only problem here is the folder does not fit on one LTO3 cartridge. This leads me back to two questions I asked earlier in the year which I had no success in resolving.
1. How do I verify tar and split between multiple tapes at the same time when W and m don't work together?
Multivolume would be -M *not* -m. It is case sensitive.
Yes correct. I made a typo :) oops. I have been reading up about bacula. Apparently bacula has the ability to span multiple tapes and drives while verifying the backup. Has anyone successfully used bacula? Any advise? What is the opinion on the bacula-web package? (I have windows admins who will need to check logs is this a good package for this job)? Off Topic: Just been on the phone to plusnet. Turns out they store everyone's password and direct debit information in plain text! How quaint (and stupid in my opinion and I am sure most of yours). I was hashing and salting my website and passwords when I was 14! some links: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/25/plusnet_still_delivering_passwords_... https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Why-does-Plusnet-store-my-a... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Hi,
I am getting an intermittent error on my LTO 3 drive. It is a HP StorageWorks 920 internal SCSI drive.
Sometimes backups work and sometimes tar will fail with this error:
tar: /dev/st3: Cannot write: Input/output error tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
I have tried 3 old tapes and one brand new tape. It has happened on all of them. I have also run two different cleaning cartridges through the drive.
Also it always fails in a different place. Sometimes it runs for 5 minutes when the error comes up, other times for an hour or so. sometimes not at all and the backup works.
If I look on the monitor connected to the server I see this error:
10:0:3:0 Error on write file mark
Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol.
Paul
Once I had a similar problem with an external tape drive. I found out that it was a problem with at power supply not at tape drive. So maybe you should first check cables and connector. What’s about the scsii controller? Is only tape connected or also disks? If there are also disks and they work fine, then you can be sure that the controller is OK. The problem is that from the viewpoint of tar it sends an order to the black box composed of controller, cable, tape drive and tape and get back only “OK” of “fail”. So it’s difficult to find out where the problem really is if you are not so lucky to have spare parts and can change piece by piece… Peter -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 8:47 AM, Peter Sikorski GTL
Hi,
I am getting an intermittent error on my LTO 3 drive. It is a HP StorageWorks 920 internal SCSI drive.
Sometimes backups work and sometimes tar will fail with this error:
tar: /dev/st3: Cannot write: Input/output error tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
I have tried 3 old tapes and one brand new tape. It has happened on all of them. I have also run two different cleaning cartridges through the drive.
Also it always fails in a different place. Sometimes it runs for 5 minutes when the error comes up, other times for an hour or so. sometimes not at all and the backup works.
If I look on the monitor connected to the server I see this error:
10:0:3:0 Error on write file mark
A "file mark" is a very low density (or physically large) marker that is written to tape. Tape heads can identify file marks easily while scanning at high-speed, so they often used by tape backup schemes. When you send 1000 files to tape via tar, at the conclusion of writing the entire collection of files, a "file mark" is written, then a "end of tape mark" (or EOT). If you append a second tar backup to the same tape, the EOT will be replaced with the new tar backup, but the first file mark will be left in place. At the end of the second tar backup, a second file mark will be written, and a new EOT. So if you are making your backups with tar, you should logically only get that error at the end of every tar command. Most commercial backup software intersperses "file marks" with the files. The advantage is you can tell the tape drive to advance X file marks and it will do so at high speed. So, I would first try to do a large tar backup. It should run to completion before the error pops out.
Does anyone know what this means exactly or what I should do? I read online that I should try cleaning the tape heads with isopropyl alcohol.
Paul
Once I had a similar problem with an external tape drive. I found out that it was a problem with at power supply not at tape drive. So maybe you should first check cables and connector.
In my experience (and I've done a lot with external tapes), the problem is normally the terminator. Sometimes you can get SCSI to work without a terminator at all, but it will be unreliable. With scsi you need a resistive termination on each end of the cable (ie. you need exactly 2 terminations per connection to the controller, not 1 per device (etc.). Normally the controller is configured to provide the termination at the start of the cable. The termination at the other end is normally a separate physical termination block. Be sure and not just reset those connections, but look at the termination setup and make sure it is right. And yes, it could have worked for years being wrong and now suddenly fail. SCSI termination is reliable when done right, but merely flaky when done wrong.
What’s about the scsii controller? Is only tape connected or also disks? If there are also disks and they work fine, then you can be sure that the controller is OK.
The problem is that from the viewpoint of tar it sends an order to the black box composed of controller, cable, tape drive and tape and get back only “OK” of “fail”. So it’s difficult to find out where the problem really is if you are not so lucky to have spare parts and can change piece by piece… Peter
Greg -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (6)
-
Carlos E. R. -
Greg Freemyer -
Ken Schneider - openSUSE -
Paul Groves -
Per Jessen -
Peter Sikorski GTL