Sun StorageTek SL3000 Modular Library System
 
Sun StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System
 
Sun StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>TAPE>Tape Hardware>SN-TP: SL3000-8500 Library
 

Drives not dismounting tapes when using netbackup, getting message "got ERROR 98 from media manager"

In this Document

Symptoms

Cause

Solution

References

Created from <SR 3-6904169361>

Applies to:

Symptoms

We have 4 drives that are dedicated for NDMP backup/restore jobs. Currently any job we send there errors out with an Error 98 from Netbackup.  All 4 drives seem to have this.  Other Library operations seem to be ok but these 4 drives are not functioning.

Also once the jobs fail the tape is not ejected.  The only way to get the tape out of the drive is to manually eject it by opening the door to the library and pushing the eject button on each drive.

NOTE: This problem seems to happen when the drive writes small amounts of data in a job (close to 1 gb)

- The drives are getting logically stuck tapes only on drives used by netbackup
- The tapes manually dismounted by opening the doors and pressing the unload button on the drives, then manually put the cartridges on storage cells.

Cause

 
In the Netbackup message logs it shows problems when trying to dismount the tapes, it replies that the drive is busy.
The library catalog shows that requested tape are still mounted on the drives.
Run a dismount from netbackup.  Success will confirm there are no hardware issues or physically stuck tapes.

Possible cause:

Netbackup is sending dismount commands when the drive is busy, so the Netbackup replies with an error and terminates the job. Netbackup does not retry a dismount when the drive is ready, so the tape is left in the drive.
If a new job is sent to the drive, the drive will be unable to mount a new cartridge because the drive still has a mounted tape.

Netbackup is showing the following messages:

Solution

- Request logs (SLConsole Snapshot and backup application error messages) - SL3000/SL8500 - How to Collect Log Snapshot From SL8500 or SL3000 Library (Doc ID 1307534.1) 

- Analyze and check for hardware issues
- Check in backup messages, when this error happens and which is the affected media.
- Check for that media in the library catalog (Cartridge Summary or Cartridge table report in SLConsole) and if this media is mounted in a drive.  Confirm that the drive is the same one as mentioned in the error message.
- Inform customer that the problem is not HW but with the backup application.
- Inform the customer that as a workaround he should manually dismount the tape:  Run the dismount commands from the backup application (stuck tape procedure  (Doc ID 1464432.1))
- The backup application must allow enough time for the drive to complete the dismount.
 

References

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