i use the "get on the latest firmware first" option as an easy way to get on the latest firmware without having to do all of the paperwork for planned upgrades. "it's broke and needs patching now!"
when they correct a known issue (bug), the fix could also inadvertantly fix a different issue, the issue that you are experiencing. if it doesn't fix your issue, then it forces them to now look at it much more closely. i had an issue a couple of weeks ago where we've been using lto5 drives for 8 months with no issues, but we are only writing to lto4 media. we put on our first batch of lto5 media and all tapes gave us errors and went to a partially written FROZEN state: /var/log/messages: Nov 17 19:12:40 tldd[18902]: TLD(0) MountTape L50000 on drive 1, from slot 51 Nov 17 19:12:41 tldcd[18908]: Processing MOUNT, TLD(0) drive 1, slot 51, barcode L50000 , vsn L50000 Nov 17 19:42:19 bptm[9924]: TapeAlert Code: 0x03, Type: Warning, Flag: HARD ERROR, from drive lto5_drv1 (index 1), Media Id L50000 Nov 17 19:42:19 bptm[9924]: TapeAlert Code: 0x06, Type: Critical, Flag: WRITE FAILURE, from drive lto5_drv1 (index 1), Media Id L50000 Nov 17 19:42:19 bptm[9924]: TapeAlert Code: 0x14, Type: Critical, Flag: CLEAN NOW, from drive lto5_drv1 (index 1), Media Id L50000 Nov 17 19:42:19 bptm[9924]: TapeAlert Code: 0x27, Type: Warning, Flag: DIAGNOSTICS REQ., from drive lto5_drv1 (index 1), Media Id L50000 Nov 17 19:42:20 tldd[18902]: TLD(0) DismountTape L50000 from drive 1 ~netbackup/db/media/errors: 11/17/11 19:42:08 L50000 1 WRITE_ERROR lto5_drv1 11/17/11 19:42:18 L50000 1 POSITION_ERROR lto5_drv1 11/17/11 19:42:19 L50000 1 TAPE_ALERT lto5_drv1 0x24001000 0x02000000 ouch! so i opened a support ticket and they thought it could be bad tapes (all of them?), but suggested a firmware upgrade. how could that fix it? lto5 drives should be able to write to lto5 media. would we have had this issue if we had used lto5 media 8 months ago with the firmware that was on the drives when they were new? so i upgraded the drives to B6W0 and it fixed the issue. i now get twice as much data written per tape in each slot of the library. jerald -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lightner, Jeff Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 8:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] IBM LTO-5 Drive Question (8.0gbps FC, FW: B5BF) A good thing to ask vendors when they suggest you patch software or update firmware is for the documentation for that patch/firmware that shows where it fixes your SPECIFIC issue. Telling people to patch/update has always been viewed by me as just a vendor stalling tactic for the most part. You should of course do planned patching/updating as regular maintenance but usually when it is suggested during troubleshooting it has little value and doesn't solve the issue. In more than 20 years I can only think of 2-3 occasions where a vendor when so challenged was actually able to show where the suggested patch/firmware specifically mentioned the issue I was having. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of WALLEBROEK Bart Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 7:12 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] IBM LTO-5 Drive Question (8.0gbps FC, FW: B5BF) Make sure to run the latest firmware on the tape drives (B6W0). IBM 'claims' that this will solve all media issues. Best Regards, Bart WALLEBROEK Message: 1 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:23:10 -0500 From: "Justin Piszcz" <[email protected]> Subject: [Veritas-bu] IBM LTO-5 Drive Question (8.0gbps FC, FW: B5BF) To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hi, I read on this list awhile back there were some media issues others were having with the IBM LTO-5 tape drives; after an update, things were better. Currently running B5BF and notice a lot of '(86) - media read errors' on separate drives in different locations, has anyone seen this, one could chalk it up to some bad tape media but because it seems to occur across >2 drives in >1 location I was curious if anyone else had seen this issue and if so, which F/W where they running that seemed to solve the issue? Drive: IBM LTO-5 8.0gbps F/C F/W: B5BF ************************************** **************************************************************** Confidentiality Note: The information contained in this message, and any attachments, may contain confidential and/or privileged material. It is intended solely for the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient(s) is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. **************************************************************** _______________________________________________ Veritas-bu maillist - [email protected] http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
