Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
AFAIK we didn't have issues at first either. I think eventually the glue started loosening up On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 10:44 PM, John Drescher dresche...@gmail.comwrote: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER I have for the last 100 or so tapes and I have had 0 issues with that. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
Hi John, I just checked with the guy who started printing labels and he said he started doing that in 2009. We didn't really notice issues until we switched to Bacula (from Netvault), so they were working fine for at least 3 years. I wonder if it's possible that Bacula drives the bar code reader more aggressively, requiring higher quality labels? All I can say is that the tapes that I marked as bad seem to work fine with HP labels, without them I encountered intermittent and random problems. Many times the reader could see the label, I would change some tapes and re-insert the magazine and suddenly the reader couldn't see the label. I would take the magazine out, reseat the tape, and the bar code could see the label. It was very frustrating to troubleshoot, until I bought pre-printed labels. I would doubt that. The barcode reader should only be used when you add or remove tapes or at least that is what my barcode reader does. After you change tapes the library scans the added tapes (or the whole magazine) and remembers this and does not scan again unless you power cycle the unit or change tapes or magazines again. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
Glue? My labels slide into a slot. No sticking involved. -- Dan Langille http://langille.org/ On Mar 12, 2013, at 10:21 AM, Simon Tyler si...@tpmcomm.com wrote: AFAIK we didn't have issues at first either. I think eventually the glue started loosening up On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 10:44 PM, John Drescher dresche...@gmail.com wrote: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER I have for the last 100 or so tapes and I have had 0 issues with that. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
All I can tell you is what happens when I don't use pre-printed labels. Change tapes update slots, label barcodes a random tape is not recognized do no tape change, take out magazine, reinsert tape in magazine update slots tape recognized This only happened with home made labels. Maybe I should run another month to make sure, but this is what I see. On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 10:55 AM, John Drescher dresche...@gmail.comwrote: Hi John, I just checked with the guy who started printing labels and he said he started doing that in 2009. We didn't really notice issues until we switched to Bacula (from Netvault), so they were working fine for at least 3 years. I wonder if it's possible that Bacula drives the bar code reader more aggressively, requiring higher quality labels? All I can say is that the tapes that I marked as bad seem to work fine with HP labels, without them I encountered intermittent and random problems. Many times the reader could see the label, I would change some tapes and re-insert the magazine and suddenly the reader couldn't see the label. I would take the magazine out, reseat the tape, and the bar code could see the label. It was very frustrating to troubleshoot, until I bought pre-printed labels. I would doubt that. The barcode reader should only be used when you add or remove tapes or at least that is what my barcode reader does. After you change tapes the library scans the added tapes (or the whole magazine) and remembers this and does not scan again unless you power cycle the unit or change tapes or magazines again. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
No slot on my tapes for labels On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Dan Langille d...@langille.org wrote: Glue? My labels slide into a slot. No sticking involved. -- Dan Langille http://langille.org/ On Mar 12, 2013, at 10:21 AM, Simon Tyler si...@tpmcomm.com wrote: AFAIK we didn't have issues at first either. I think eventually the glue started loosening up On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 10:44 PM, John Drescher dresche...@gmail.comwrote: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER I have for the last 100 or so tapes and I have had 0 issues with that. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
In the message dated: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:44:25 -0400, The pithy ruminations from John Drescher on Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable were: = DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS = EVER = = I have for the last 100 or so tapes and I have had 0 issues with that. = In my experience, the readability of barcode labels is highly dependant on the combination of the label and the barcode reader. Since 2006 we've had: LTO2 library~100 pre-printed labels, no problem LTO3 library~100 pre-printed labels, no problem ~50 in-house labels, no problem ~100 in-house labels, no problem ~50 in-house labels, no problem LTO3 2nd library~50 in-house labels, ~1% failure rate LTO3 2nd library~50 in-house labels, ~1% failure rate LTO450 pre-printed labels, no problem 50 in-house LTO4 labels: ~75% failure ~75% failure reading existing LTO3 in-house labels (100% failure for some batches, ~25% failure for other batches) ~ 5% failure rate reading pre-printed LTO3 labels Over the years, we've used different parameters for printing labels, with extremely minor changes (mm) in the height and width of the labels. All labels were printed with a color laser printer onto self-adhesive (Avery 6577) label stock, following the TriOptic color coding and the USS-39 barcode standard. However, each the barcode reader on each of our tape libraries is different--some (the 2nd LTO3 library) were slightly sensitive to the label placement (whether it was straight, whether it was to the left/right/top/bottom of the indented region on the tape cassette), while the reader in our current LTO4 library is extremely sensitive to the barcode size, label position, stray ink or discoloration on the edge of a label, etc. The LTO4 libarary has even had difficulty reading some pre-printed labels. We've used the following on-line barcode generators, as well as local perl scripts: http://www.mytapelabels.com/ http://blog.maniac.nl/index.php/webbased-pdf-lto-barcode-generator/ In short, I'd say that the success--or failure--of locally generated barcode labels is highly dependent on the combination of the label and the barcode scanner; there is no absolute answer for every environment. Mark = John = = -- -- Mark Bergman voice: 215-662-7310 mark.berg...@uphs.upenn.edu fax: 215-614-0266 System Administrator Section of Biomedical Image Analysis Department of RadiologyUniversity of Pennsylvania PGP Key: https://www.rad.upenn.edu/sbia/bergman -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
On 12/03/13 16:46, mark.berg...@uphs.upenn.edu wrote: In my experience, the readability of barcode labels is highly dependant on the combination of the label and the barcode reader. What brand/model libraries are you using? Overland (at least) are fairly immune to alignment/placement issues. I've seen problems with inkjet-printed labels bleeding enough to make barcodes illegible but nothing else has had issues. -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 5:20 PM, Alan Brown a...@mssl.ucl.ac.uk wrote: On 12/03/13 16:46, mark.berg...@uphs.upenn.edu wrote: In my experience, the readability of barcode labels is highly dependant on the combination of the label and the barcode reader. What brand/model libraries are you using? Overland (at least) are fairly immune to alignment/placement issues. I've seen problems with inkjet-printed labels bleeding enough to make barcodes illegible but nothing else has had issues. My home LTO4 Tandberg StorageLoader 8 is a [expletive deleted] with labels, but the three Overland Neo 2000 libraries I manage are quite happy with own printed labels. Cheers Arne -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_mar ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
Although this issue is old, I thought I should update the list on resolution: As noted below and in several previous posts, I had a lot of problems with tapes not being recognized. It appears that the tapes were labelled by someone generating a barcode online, and printing out the bar code labels on regular printer paper. I ordered HP Pre printed tape labels, and it looks to me as if these issues have gone away. I also took a tape that the reader previously refused to recognize at all, used the proper label, and the reader now recognizes the tape. I'm pretty sure this was the source of much (if not all) of the grief I've had. I'm really glad I just marked the tapes as bad and set them aside instead of throwing them away, I can understand why someone would do this, the cost of preprinted labels is obscene (at least from our supplier) This problem was really very annoying and intermittent, and I hope no one else encounters it, but just in case you do: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER Thanks, On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 6:21 PM, Dan Langille d...@langille.org wrote: On Nov 26, 2012, at 5:59 PM, Simon Tyler wrote: bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net Today I had some tapes brought in from offsite storage and I loaded them into the autoloader. One of the tapes was recognized, and the other (slot 7) showed in the Autoloader website and in the bacula (backup software) as Empty or not recognized. I mounted the unrecognized tape, stopped bacula, and did this: mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind mt -f /dev/nst0 weof mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind This rewinds the tape and marks end of file at the beginning, deleting the tape. Then I started bacula and checked the status again. This time, the tape in slot 8 was unrecognized, and the tape in slot 7 was recognized. This exact scenario has happened enough times that I'm confident I made no error; it's happening too often to be failed tapes. In the past, simply loading or mounting a tape from one slot, is enough to have a tape in another slot show as unrecognized. So now that I've deleted the tape, Point of clarification: you've [effectively] erased the tape. I say effectively, because the data is still on there, but way outside the scope of this discussion. I'm being petty here only because the jargon used in this situation is important. is there a way to reset the entry for that tape in Bacula, as the Catalog thinks it's holding data? delete volume This removes the entry from the Catalog. Then you'll want to issue a label command. -- Dan Langille - http://langille.org -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER I have for the last 100 or so tapes and I have had 0 issues with that. John -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
On 12/03/2013 8:48 AM, Simon Tyler wrote: [SNIP] This problem was really very annoying and intermittent, and I hope no one else encounters it, but just in case you do: DO NOT PRINT YOUR OWN LABELS EVER I've never had a problem with labels I have printed myself. I have mix-and-matched various programmatic and on-line label generators, and print the things out out my venerable Epson Inkjet (because I like colours!). Perhaps in your mucking about you managed to inadvertently clean some crud from the lens of the reader, returning it to proper working condition? Cheers, GaryB-) -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and remains a good choice in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] tapes randomly become unrecognizeable
On Nov 26, 2012, at 5:59 PM, Simon Tyler wrote: Today I had some tapes brought in from offsite storage and I loaded them into the autoloader. One of the tapes was recognized, and the other (slot 7) showed in the Autoloader website and in the bacula (backup software) as Empty or not recognized. I mounted the unrecognized tape, stopped bacula, and did this: mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind mt -f /dev/nst0 weof mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind This rewinds the tape and marks end of file at the beginning, deleting the tape. Then I started bacula and checked the status again. This time, the tape in slot 8 was unrecognized, and the tape in slot 7 was recognized. This exact scenario has happened enough times that I'm confident I made no error; it's happening too often to be failed tapes. In the past, simply loading or mounting a tape from one slot, is enough to have a tape in another slot show as unrecognized. So now that I've deleted the tape, Point of clarification: you've [effectively] erased the tape. I say effectively, because the data is still on there, but way outside the scope of this discussion. I'm being petty here only because the jargon used in this situation is important. is there a way to reset the entry for that tape in Bacula, as the Catalog thinks it's holding data? delete volume This removes the entry from the Catalog. Then you'll want to issue a label command. -- Dan Langille - http://langille.org -- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
