Tape drive going offline

[woodsdarren]

I am testing DPM at the moment. I have 5 protection groups with all types of
data. I am short term to disk and long term to tape. The library is Dell
PV124T. When I am running my nightly backup to tape the tape drive goes
offline at random times and throws a DRV Comm Failure Type(6E). (Error on LCD
of autoloader) It stays in this state until I powercyle the loader and
rescan the library in DPM. When this happens the drive and loader dissappear
from the device manager in Windows - something wrong with the tape drive -
right? Wrong.

I have replaced the autoloader, drive, scsi cable, terminator and controller
and this still happens. Also when I wipe out the server and install backup
exec, the backups work perfctly.

Has anyone seen this or anything likie it? Thanks in advance for any info
you can give..

Darren

[Jeff Hofstetter]

I have the same problem (same equipment). I suspect it is a driver problem
but do not have a solution at this time. Hopefully someone will have an
answer.

Post by woodsdarren
I am testing DPM at the moment. I have 5 protection groups with all types of
data. I am short term to disk and long term to tape. The library is
Dell
PV124T. When I am running my nightly backup to tape the tape drive goes
offline at random times and throws a DRV Comm Failure Type(6E). (Error on LCD
of autoloader) It stays in this state until I powercyle the loader and
rescan the library in DPM. When this happens the drive and loader dissappear
from the device manager in Windows - something wrong with the tape drive -
right? Wrong.
I have replaced the autoloader, drive, scsi cable, terminator and controller
and this still happens. Also when I wipe out the server and install backup
exec, the backups work perfctly.
Has anyone seen this or anything likie it? Thanks in advance for any info
you can give..
Darren

[woodsdarren]

Do you also have an LSI PSI-e controller?

I cannot belive that no one else has run into this as it seems to me that
this would be pretty common hardware. If I cannot get this resolved fairly
quickly I will not be purchasing this software. Too bad as it is so much
cheaper than Backup Exec. Do you know if I can get some sort of support from
MS on evaluation products? Thanks!

Post by Jeff Hofstetter
I have the same problem (same equipment). I suspect it is a driver problem
but do not have a solution at this time. Hopefully someone will have an
answer.

Post by woodsdarren
I am testing DPM at the moment. I have 5 protection groups with all types of
data. I am short term to disk and long term to tape. The library is
Dell
PV124T. When I am running my nightly backup to tape the tape drive goes
offline at random times and throws a DRV Comm Failure Type(6E). (Error on LCD
of autoloader) It stays in this state until I powercyle the loader and
rescan the library in DPM. When this happens the drive and loader dissappear
from the device manager in Windows - something wrong with the tape drive -
right? Wrong.
I have replaced the autoloader, drive, scsi cable, terminator and controller
and this still happens. Also when I wipe out the server and install backup
exec, the backups work perfctly.
Has anyone seen this or anything likie it? Thanks in advance for any info
you can give..
Darren

[Jeff Hofstetter]

My problem is getting worse so I am going to be contacting Dell for help. I
am using DPM 2007 on a Dell DP500 server and a Dell PV124T so they won't be
able to blame it on someone else.

I will let you know if I make any progress.

Post by woodsdarren
Do you also have an LSI PSI-e controller?
I cannot belive that no one else has run into this as it seems to me that
this would be pretty common hardware. If I cannot get this resolved fairly
quickly I will not be purchasing this software. Too bad as it is so much
cheaper than Backup Exec. Do you know if I can get some sort of support from
MS on evaluation products? Thanks!

Post by Jeff Hofstetter
I have the same problem (same equipment). I suspect it is a driver problem
but do not have a solution at this time. Hopefully someone will have an
answer.

Post by woodsdarren
I am testing DPM at the moment. I have 5 protection groups with all
types
of
data. I am short term to disk and long term to tape. The library is
Dell
PV124T. When I am running my nightly backup to tape the tape drive goes
offline at random times and throws a DRV Comm Failure Type(6E). (Error
on
LCD
of autoloader) It stays in this state until I powercyle the loader and
rescan the library in DPM. When this happens the drive and loader dissappear
from the device manager in Windows - something wrong with the tape drive -
right? Wrong.
I have replaced the autoloader, drive, scsi cable, terminator and controller
and this still happens. Also when I wipe out the server and install backup
exec, the backups work perfctly.
Has anyone seen this or anything likie it? Thanks in advance for any info
you can give..
Darren

[Jeff Hofstetter]

Dell replaced my PV124T, the SAS cable, and the SAS controller. I did some
backups last night and they all completed successfully. My guess is it was
the SAS controller, but it is only a guess.

I am hopeful that my issue is resolved but I will reserve judgment for a few
more backup cycles.

Post by woodsdarren
Do you also have an LSI PSI-e controller?
I cannot belive that no one else has run into this as it seems to me that
this would be pretty common hardware. If I cannot get this resolved fairly
quickly I will not be purchasing this software. Too bad as it is so much
cheaper than Backup Exec. Do you know if I can get some sort of support from
MS on evaluation products? Thanks!

Post by Jeff Hofstetter
I have the same problem (same equipment). I suspect it is a driver problem
but do not have a solution at this time. Hopefully someone will have an
answer.

Post by woodsdarren
I am testing DPM at the moment. I have 5 protection groups with all
types
of
data. I am short term to disk and long term to tape. The library is
Dell
PV124T. When I am running my nightly backup to tape the tape drive goes
offline at random times and throws a DRV Comm Failure Type(6E). (Error
on
LCD
of autoloader) It stays in this state until I powercyle the loader and
rescan the library in DPM. When this happens the drive and loader dissappear
from the device manager in Windows - something wrong with the tape drive -
right? Wrong.
I have replaced the autoloader, drive, scsi cable, terminator and controller
and this still happens. Also when I wipe out the server and install backup
exec, the backups work perfctly.
Has anyone seen this or anything likie it? Thanks in advance for any info
you can give..
Darren