NT4 Server, hp dat & nt backup = knightmare

[madman045]

Ive not had much luck in sorting this problem out, so im gonna ask you guys & see if you can come up with a solution.

NT4 Server, SP6
HP Dat 40 drive, SCSI
Tekram DC-390U2WE card

The scsi adapter detects the drive, the drive is detected in windows, installed the driver for the card & downloaded the driver for the tape drive.

The tape drive is using the 4mm dat drivers

I have used HPs Storageworks Library & Tape tools & the drive is fine according to the diagnostic checks.

The server is being backed up using ntbackup.

The scheduled job kicks in, ntbackup checks the files & then starts, after approx 3hrs into the process, it stops working, the tape drive is no longer responding, yet there is a green light on the drive.

rebooting the server also does not resolve it, but when you reboot, the scsi card no longer detects the drive.

The only way for the system to see the tape drive again is to power off the server completely.

Anyone got any ideas??

Thanks

[gamesaregood]

That sounds strange :S

How much data are you backing up and how big is the tape?

[madman045]

That sounds strange :S

How much data are you backing up and how big is the tape?

Backing up about 28gb, the tapes are 20/40 DDS4

I really cant think of what can be causing it bar NT4 not handling the drive properly...

[Jiff Lemon]

You tried backing up a smaller Data set?
Has the drive ever worked?

[Moby-Dick]

I'd go with data size - I've yet to see a "40Gb" tape actually take 40 GB of real data and not log files

[madman045]

You tried backing up a smaller Data set?
Has the drive ever worked?

I will try & backup something smaller 1st thing tomorrow morning.

The drive is 2 weeks old & it has worked (well as far as event viewer goes)

Does anyone know if you can reset the scsi bus without having to power it off, i.e software?

[scottyman]

I've had that problem with surestore units
make sure you've cleaned the unit

upgrade the firmware

run a couple of small backups first (to make sure it keeps responding correctly)

clean it again

do the backup WITHOUT hardware and/or software compression

turn on hardware compression - and run the same test.

if it passes, you should be okay - but hardware compression on those drives always has been a bit flaky.