tape drive repair question
Not strictly amanda related, but I can't use my amanda setup until it is resolved. I've got an HP DDS3 autoloader (SureStore 6x24) and need to have it serviced or do something myself. The drive uses a plastic magazine to hold 6 tape cartridges, 3 each in the front and rear. During normal operation the magazine must be rotated 180 degrees to reach the tapes at the other end. This movement is what is failing. The rotation begins and seems to stick about 1/3 of the way around. If I operate the drive without a cover, I can manually assist the operation and it completes. If it was only a mechanical device I'd try spraying some lubricant. But that is probably not a good idea inside a tape drive ;) What can be seen with the cover off looks remarkably clean. None of the dust and fuzz seen blown around inside a computer. Maybe if it was disassembled further I'd find something to clean. I tried calling HP Support and eventually got someone 'knowledgeable'. Seems their out of warranty repair policy is to swap you a discounted, refurbished unit for about 1/2 what I paid for mine on eBay several years back. I expected HP's authorized repair/service centers to be able to do something, but HP does not authorize them to work on tape units. Anyone ever resolved a similar problem on one of these units? Or have other suggestions? -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
Re: tape drive repair question
--On August 22, 2005 3:14:04 AM -0400 Jon LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not strictly amanda related, but I can't use my amanda setup until it is resolved. I've got an HP DDS3 autoloader (SureStore 6x24) and need to have it serviced or do something myself. The drive uses a plastic magazine to hold 6 tape cartridges, 3 each in the front and rear. During normal operation the magazine must be rotated 180 degrees to reach the tapes at the other end. This movement is what is failing. The rotation begins and seems to stick about 1/3 of the way around. If I operate the drive without a cover, I can manually assist the operation and it completes. If it was only a mechanical device I'd try spraying some lubricant. But that is probably not a good idea inside a tape drive ;) I've never serviced one of these units, however, in general, what is used is a white lithium grease compound for lubrication. Sometimes it may have a teflon component to it as well (that is as part of the grease). This is a 'general purpose' type of lubricant for computer stuff. HP uses it in their printers, on both plastic and metal parts. It's very neutral, and not very tacky to dust usually so it stays clean. Assuming it's something of that nature and not a failing/failed servomotor or other drive motor for the movement of the mechanism it *should* be fairly easy to service. However, as I said, I'm unfamiliar with this particular unit. Sorry I can't offer any other helpMaybe someone more knowledgeable will kick in :)
Re: AIT2 tape size?
Toralf Lund wrote:
I've been meaning to ask about this for a long time:
Does anyone here use AIT2 tapes, a.k.a. SDX-50C, for Amanda backup?
What tape length are you using? [ ... ]
I've now finally run amtape - after making absolutely sure H/W
compression was off - and it said:
-sh-2.05b$ amtapetype -e 50g -t SDX2-50C-NOHWC -f /dev/tape
Writing 256 Mbyte compresseable data: 44 sec
Writing 256 Mbyte uncompresseable data: 44 sec
Estimated time to write 2 * 51200 Mbyte: 17600 sec = 4 h 53 min
wrote 1540096 32Kb blocks in 94 files in 8139 seconds (short write)
wrote 1531904 32Kb blocks in 187 files in 8236 seconds (short write)
define tapetype SDX2-50C-NOHWC {
comment just produced by tapetype prog (hardware compression off)
length 48386 mbytes
filemark 2818 kbytes
speed 6003 kps
}
The size reported is as you can see quite a bit below 50Gb, but close to
5000b, so I guess the capacity is 50 salesman's gigabytes, like
someone suggested. I seem to remember writing closer to 25 *real* Gb on
an AIT-1, though, so it may still look like the capacity is less than
doubled with AIT-2, but I could be wrong...
- Toralf
RE: tape drive repair question
I have the same unit and went through the HP swap to replace it. It was very expensive. You may be better off just buying a few of the $ 100 units off ebay, run a cleaning tape through them, then test until you get one that works reliably. It will be much cheaper in the long run and you'll have lots of spare parts. Scott... Scott R. Burns NETCON Technologies Inc. Suite 135 - 4474 Blakie Road London, Ontario, Canada N6L 1G7 Voice: +1.519.652.0401 Fax: +1.519.652.9275 -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Jon LaBadie Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 3:14 AM To: Jon LaBadie Subject: tape drive repair question Not strictly amanda related, but I can't use my amanda setup until it is resolved. I've got an HP DDS3 autoloader (SureStore 6x24) and need to have it serviced or do something myself. The drive uses a plastic magazine to hold 6 tape cartridges, 3 each in the front and rear. During normal operation the magazine must be rotated 180 degrees to reach the tapes at the other end. This movement is what is failing. The rotation begins and seems to stick about 1/3 of the way around. If I operate the drive without a cover, I can manually assist the operation and it completes. If it was only a mechanical device I'd try spraying some lubricant. But that is probably not a good idea inside a tape drive ;) What can be seen with the cover off looks remarkably clean. None of the dust and fuzz seen blown around inside a computer. Maybe if it was disassembled further I'd find something to clean. I tried calling HP Support and eventually got someone 'knowledgeable'. Seems their out of warranty repair policy is to swap you a discounted, refurbished unit for about 1/2 what I paid for mine on eBay several years back. I expected HP's authorized repair/service centers to be able to do something, but HP does not authorize them to work on tape units. Anyone ever resolved a similar problem on one of these units? Or have other suggestions? -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
Re: tape drive repair question
2005/8/22, Jon LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Not strictly amanda related, but I can't use my amanda setup until it is resolved. I've got an HP DDS3 autoloader (SureStore 6x24) and need to have it serviced or do something myself. We had a problem with a quantum DLT4500 drive a couple of years ago. We sent it to a company called memofix. They sent us a replacement promptly unit and the cost was affordable. The unit has not failed since then. Maybe they can help you. They have a US office I think (Or you can send it to Canada on the cheap :-) www.memofix.com
RE: tape drive repair question
Jon, Hi. I work for HP and unfortunately, it looks like these drives were always considered a field replaceable unit, so even when they were under warranty if you had a problem, we'd just swap out a new enclosure for you. That means there's not much in the way of internal diagnostic/troubleshooting material around on these things because the CE's never did anything but swap 'em. Oh the joys of disposable hardware... I'll try to find someone who knows a little bit about these units and post any suggestions I get to the list, but no promises. I don't know much about them myself because I'm more of a software guy than hardware. Mike C From: Jon LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Jon LaBadie amanda-users@amanda.org Subject: tape drive repair question Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 03:14:04 -0400 Not strictly amanda related, but I can't use my amanda setup until it is resolved. I've got an HP DDS3 autoloader (SureStore 6x24) and need to have it serviced or do something myself. The drive uses a plastic magazine to hold 6 tape cartridges, 3 each in the front and rear. During normal operation the magazine must be rotated 180 degrees to reach the tapes at the other end. This movement is what is failing. The rotation begins and seems to stick about 1/3 of the way around. If I operate the drive without a cover, I can manually assist the operation and it completes. If it was only a mechanical device I'd try spraying some lubricant. But that is probably not a good idea inside a tape drive ;) What can be seen with the cover off looks remarkably clean. None of the dust and fuzz seen blown around inside a computer. Maybe if it was disassembled further I'd find something to clean. I tried calling HP Support and eventually got someone 'knowledgeable'. Seems their out of warranty repair policy is to swap you a discounted, refurbished unit for about 1/2 what I paid for mine on eBay several years back. I expected HP's authorized repair/service centers to be able to do something, but HP does not authorize them to work on tape units. Anyone ever resolved a similar problem on one of these units? Or have other suggestions?
Problem with backup of windows shares
I have a problem with the backup of two windows shares. At the beginning, always works fine: I do a full backup of the shares (they have the same contents). After, I add a file of 255 kb in the two shares. I do an incremental backup and I've got a problem: one of the share just backup the file and the other backup all the share. But the two backups are going up to the level 1. Why I don't have an incremental backup for the two shares? The debug file sendsize.XXX.debug seems to me very strange. There is notions of level 2 of backup. But we know that windows share could going up just at level 1. sendsize: debug 1 pid 8385 ruid 34 euid 34: start at Mon Aug 22 15:10:36 2005 sendsize: version 2.4.5 sendsize[8385]: time 0.009: waiting for any estimate child: 1 running sendsize[8388]: time 0.012: calculating for amname '//Yoann.neotip/backup', dirname '//Yoann.neotip/backup', spindle -1 sendsize[8388]: time 0.013: getting size via smbclient for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 1 sendsize[8388]: time 0.013: spawning /usr/bin/smbclient in pipeline sendsize[8388]: argument list: smbclient \\Yoann.neotip\backup -d 0 -U Youn -E -c archive 1;recurse;du sendsize[8388]: time 0.141: Domain=[YOANN] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager] sendsize[8388]: time 0.232: sendsize[8388]: time 0.233: 38146 blocks of size 1048576. 23651 blocks available sendsize[8388]: time 0.233: Total number of bytes: 260218 sendsize[8388]: time 0.234: . sendsize[8388]: estimate time for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 1: 0.221 sendsize[8388]: estimate size for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 1: 255 KB sendsize[8388]: time 0.234: waiting for /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup child sendsize[8388]: time 0.234: after /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup wait sendsize[8388]: time 0.234: getting size via smbclient for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 2 sendsize[8388]: time 0.235: spawning /usr/bin/smbclient in pipeline sendsize[8388]: argument list: smbclient \\Yoann.neotip\backup -d 0 -U Youn -E -c archive 1;recurse;du sendsize[8388]: time 0.305: Domain=[YOANN] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager] sendsize[8388]: time 0.398: sendsize[8388]: time 0.399: 38146 blocks of size 1048576. 23651 blocks available sendsize[8388]: time 0.399: Total number of bytes: 260218 sendsize[8388]: time 0.400: . sendsize[8388]: estimate time for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 2: 0.165 sendsize[8388]: estimate size for //Yoann.neotip/backup level 2: 255 KB sendsize[8388]: time 0.400: waiting for /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup child sendsize[8388]: time 0.400: after /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup wait sendsize[8388]: time 0.400: done with amname '//Yoann.neotip/backup', dirname '//Yoann.neotip/backup', spindle -1 sendsize[8385]: time 0.401: child 8388 terminated normally sendsize[8385]: time 0.401: waiting for any estimate child: 1 running sendsize[8421]: time 0.401: calculating for amname '//Yoann.neotip/backup1', dirname '//Yoann.neotip/backup1', spindle -1 sendsize[8421]: time 0.401: getting size via smbclient for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 1 sendsize[8421]: time 0.401: spawning /usr/bin/smbclient in pipeline sendsize[8421]: argument list: smbclient \\Yoann.neotip\backup1 -d 0 -U Youn -E -c archive 1;recurse;du sendsize[8421]: time 0.469: Domain=[YOANN] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager] sendsize[8421]: time 0.555: sendsize[8421]: time 0.556: 38146 blocks of size 1048576. 23651 blocks available sendsize[8421]: time 0.556: Total number of bytes: 6966517 sendsize[8421]: time 0.557: . sendsize[8421]: estimate time for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 1: 0.156 sendsize[8421]: estimate size for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 1: 6804 KB sendsize[8421]: time 0.558: waiting for /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup1 child sendsize[8421]: time 0.558: after /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup1 wait sendsize[8421]: time 0.558: getting size via smbclient for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 2 sendsize[8421]: time 0.558: spawning /usr/bin/smbclient in pipeline sendsize[8421]: argument list: smbclient \\Yoann.neotip\backup1 -d 0 -U Youn -E -c archive 1;recurse;du sendsize[8421]: time 0.619: Domain=[YOANN] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager] sendsize[8421]: time 0.708: sendsize[8421]: time 0.708: 38146 blocks of size 1048576. 23651 blocks available sendsize[8421]: time 0.709: Total number of bytes: 6966517 sendsize[8421]: time 0.710: . sendsize[8421]: estimate time for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 2: 0.152 sendsize[8421]: estimate size for //Yoann.neotip/backup1 level 2: 6804 KB sendsize[8421]: time 0.710: waiting for /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup1 child sendsize[8421]: time 0.710: after /usr/bin/smbclient //Yoann.neotip/backup1 wait sendsize[8421]: time 0.710: done with amname '//Yoann.neotip/backup1', dirname '//Yoann.neotip/backup1', spindle -1 sendsize[8385]: time 0.711: child 8421 terminated normally sendsize: time
Re: Problem with backup of windows shares
On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 04:55:06PM +0200, tanguy yoann wrote: I have a problem with the backup of two windows shares. At the beginning, always works fine: I do a full backup of the shares (they have the same contents). After, I add a file of 255 kb in the two shares. I do an incremental backup and I've got a problem: one of the share just backup the file and the other backup all the share. But the two backups are going up to the level 1. Why I don't have an incremental backup for the two shares? The debug file sendsize.XXX.debug seems to me very strange. There is notions of level 2 of backup. But we know that windows share could going up just at level 1. This is mostly guesswork on my part without delving into the actual mechanics of the code. Remember that the server is not backing up a windows share directly. It is backing up a unix/linux client that happens to have access to a windows share. It is the client that makes the distinction between local DLEs and remote DLEs. So the planner and estimater on the server might ask the reasonable size (reasonable to ask of a unix/linux client) if I do a level 0, level 1, and level 2 backup of this DLE, what do you think the sizes will be? I note in your logs that the client has returned the same size for both level 1 and level 2 (6804 KB). Perhaps the client code realizes that a true level 2 can not be done on a PC share, and rather than returning an error can't be done, simply says the same value. This seems to me to be a reasonable response as the planner will chose the higher level 1 over the level 2 if they are the same size. -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
How do I deal with STRANGE backups ?
Hi all, I've relatively new to Amanda, and playing with backups in general. I've been able to get Amanda to back up my entire server farm (important bits only, no full OS backups), but I'm running into a problem.. Well, possibly a problem. I get this in my Amanda report : FAILURE AND STRANGE DUMP SUMMARY: mail1 /etc lev 1 STRANGE I understand, basically, what that means. In essence, the files are changing and/or being removed before the tar command finishes. So, what is the proper way to deal with this? Is this something to be concerned with? Thanks! Jason
Re: How do I deal with STRANGE backups ?
Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold wrote: I understand, basically, what that means. In essence, the files are changing and/or being removed before the tar command finishes. So, what is the proper way to deal with this? Is this something to be concerned with? Personally, I wouldn't worry overly much about it, unless the detailed report indicate that important files are being *removed* before they can be backed up.
Re: How do I deal with STRANGE backups ?
On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 12:53:19PM -0400, Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold wrote: Hi all, I've relatively new to Amanda, and playing with backups in general. I've been able to get Amanda to back up my entire server farm (important bits only, no full OS backups), but I'm running into a problem.. Well, possibly a problem. I get this in my Amanda report : FAILURE AND STRANGE DUMP SUMMARY: mail1 /etc lev 1 STRANGE I understand, basically, what that means. In essence, the files are changing and/or being removed before the tar command finishes. So, what is the proper way to deal with this? Is this something to be concerned with? Assuming that was the strangeness, the specific files should be listed elsewhere in the report. Monitor them for a while. You may find they are spool files and other temporary files. If so, who cares. But also, why are you backing up the directory containing tmp and spool files :) Perhaps the exclude directive could help for file types (eg. *.tmp) or for some directories. If you find some important files are changing during backup, then you will have to see if it happens during a lot of backups or just occasionally. Based on that decide if you can live with it of need to deal with it in some more complex way. -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
selfcheck hangs when running amcheck
Hi all, I just added a few more items to back up from a particular server (that has, up 'til now, been working fine), but running amcheck now causes /usr/lib/amanda/selfcheck to hang on the server in question. I see the following in the process listing: 16255 ?Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd 4951 ?S 0:00 \_ amandad 4952 ?S 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/amanda/selfcheck 4953 ?Z 0:00 \_ [amandad] defunct But it never finishes and I have to kill -9 selfcheck to get it to die. Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be? Graeme -- Graeme Humphries ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (306) 955-7075 ext. 485 My views are not the views of my employers.
Re: How do I deal with STRANGE backups ?
Jon LaBadie wrote: Assuming that was the strangeness, the specific files should be listed elsewhere in the report. Monitor them for a while. You may find they are spool files and other temporary files. If so, who cares. But also, why are you backing up the directory containing tmp and spool files :) Perhaps the exclude directive could help for file types (eg. *.tmp) or for some directories. Ahh, I was hoping that was the case. Most of them are probably temp files, some are new mail messages coming in, or that have been read and deleted between the start of the tar and the point at which they were scheduled to be added... Not much I can do about those I suppose.. :) The temporary files aren't a huge problem at this point either. It doesn't seem to take much time to back everything up, and it's not taking a huge amount of space yet. I'll definitely look into it tho... If you find some important files are changing during backup, then you will have to see if it happens during a lot of backups or just occasionally. Based on that decide if you can live with it of need to deal with it in some more complex way. Well, I have a few databases that need to be backed up. I'll have to set up a script to dump them shortly before backup.. That shouldn't be a huge problem. Is there a way to format the amanda reports? I'm finding a huge amount of whitespace in the reports and it's just plain annoying... :) -- --- Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold Engine / Technology Programmer [EMAIL PROTECTED] RedHat Certified - RHCE # 803004140609871 MySQL Pro Certified - ID# 207171862 MySQL Core Certified - ID# 205982910 --- Something mysterious is formed, born in the silent void. Waiting alone and unmoving, it is at once still and yet in constant motion. It is the source of all programs. I do not know its name, so I will call it the Tao of Programming.
Directory Access Issue
Hi all, I'm receiving the following in my daily amanda check email : ERROR: mail2.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] ERROR: mail1.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] I don't see anything really special about that directory .. I'm not sure why permission is denied ?? Can someone point me in the right direction? [EMAIL PROTECTED] /]$ ls -lad home/ drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 12 2004 home/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] home]$ ls -lad vpopmail/ drwxr-x--- 9 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 May 16 16:21 vpopmail/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] vpopmail]$ ls -lad etc drwxr-xr-x 2 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 Jul 18 20:30 etc Thanks! -- --- Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold Engine / Technology Programmer [EMAIL PROTECTED] RedHat Certified - RHCE # 803004140609871 MySQL Pro Certified - ID# 207171862 MySQL Core Certified - ID# 205982910 --- Something mysterious is formed, born in the silent void. Waiting alone and unmoving, it is at once still and yet in constant motion. It is the source of all programs. I do not know its name, so I will call it the Tao of Programming.
Re: Directory Access Issue
--On Monday, August 22, 2005 23:13:29 -0400 Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I'm receiving the following in my daily amanda check email : ERROR: mail2.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] ERROR: mail1.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] I don't see anything really special about that directory .. I'm not sure why permission is denied ?? Can someone point me in the right direction? [EMAIL PROTECTED] /]$ ls -lad home/ drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 12 2004 home/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] home]$ ls -lad vpopmail/ drwxr-x--- 9 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 May 16 16:21 vpopmail/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] vpopmail]$ ls -lad etc drwxr-xr-x 2 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 Jul 18 20:30 etc /home/vpopmail ccan only be traversed by the vpopmail user and users in the vchkpw group. Normally that wouldn't be an issue with Amanda, since the runtar and rundump executables are normally suid root so that tar and dump can read everything. Check to make sure yours are. Another less likely possibility (at least for a mail directory) is that it happens to be an NFS mount and the root user is being mapped to nobody (or equivalent) due to mount or export options. Frank Thanks! -- --- Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold Engine / Technology Programmer [EMAIL PROTECTED] RedHat Certified - RHCE # 803004140609871 MySQL Pro Certified - ID# 207171862 MySQL Core Certified - ID# 205982910 --- Something mysterious is formed, born in the silent void. Waiting alone and unmoving, it is at once still and yet in constant motion. It is the source of all programs. I do not know its name, so I will call it the Tao of Programming. -- Frank Smith[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sr. Systems Administrator Voice: 512-374-4673 Hoover's Online Fax: 512-374-4501
Re: Directory Access Issue
On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 11:13:29PM -0400, Jason 'XenoPhage' Frisvold wrote: Hi all, I'm receiving the following in my daily amanda check email : ERROR: mail2.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] ERROR: mail1.domain.com: [could not access /home/vpopmail/etc (/home/vpopmail/etc): Permission denied] I don't see anything really special about that directory .. I'm not sure why permission is denied ?? Can someone point me in the right direction? [EMAIL PROTECTED] /]$ ls -lad home/ drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Aug 12 2004 home/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] home]$ ls -lad vpopmail/ drwxr-x--- 9 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 May 16 16:21 vpopmail/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] vpopmail]$ ls -lad etc drwxr-xr-x 2 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 Jul 18 20:30 etc IIRC, amcheck runs without root privileges and thus may not be able to access directories that will be correctly backed up by amdump. To shut up amcheck, you will have to adjust the permissions of all the directories leading to the root of a DLE to be accessible by the amanda user. Otherwise put up with the messages. -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
