Tape - How to Determine a Stuck Tape

Asset ID:	1-75-1531401.1
Update Date:	2017-09-19
Keywords:

Solution Type Troubleshooting Sure

Solution 1531401.1 : Tape - How to Determine a Stuck Tape

Applies to:

LTO Tape Drive - Version All Versions and later
Sun StorageTek T10000 Tape Drive - Version All Versions and later
Sun StorageTek 9840 Tape Drive - Version Not Applicable and later
Sun StorageTek 9940 Data Cartridge - Version Not Applicable and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Purpose

How to determine if a media tape cartridge is physically stuck in a tape drive and a CSE is needed to remove the tape.

Troubleshooting Steps

No matter what kind of drive you have, the process to determine if it is a physically stuck media in a drive is the same.

The general idea is :

- Confirm the status of the drive

- Try to force dismount the drive

One needs to start with knowing the difference of a Logically and Physically stuck Tape.

A physically stuck tape is where a tape is stuck on a drive with a physical problem that does not allow the tape to come out.

A logically stuck tape is when there is no physical problem but for some reason the media is not ejecting from the drive.

On the next part we present a couple of ways that you can check and try to remove that media from the Drive.

If you have a SL500, SL3000 or SL8500 with SLC (Stream Line Console) access.

A Good way to check the status of the drive is to open SLConsole connection to the library and check the direct information of the drive. This is a valuable piece of information that will tell you what is going on.

On System Details, select and open the drive folder and select the drive in question.

On Drive State, one can see the current status of the Drive.

Drive States:

Loading is when a media has been put in the drive and the load proses starts. This is a transitional state if the drive is loading for a long time please contact Oracle for help.

Loaded is the normal status when the media is ready to be Read or Write.

Unloading/rewinding is a transitional state when the unload command has been issue and rewinding the media has started. This is a transitional state if the drive is rewinding. After the drive has rewound, it should go to Cartridge Present state.

Cartridge Present is when the media is ready to be pull by the robotics.

This is the first clue that will tell you if there is a problem within the transitional states. If a drive is stuck on loading or rewinding there is a problem in the drive with a media inside.

SLConsole Recovery Move:

SLC has a tool to recover media from the drives that will force a rewind of the media if it is not ready to be ejected and will move the media out of the Drive to a specific location.

Tools->Diagnostics->Select the Library-> (tab) RcvrMove

RcvrMove (Recovery Move)

Recovery move will be a tool to use for rewinding a tape and taking it out of a drive and move it to a specific cell slot.

Select Type Drive and imput the drive address on Source then on destination the recommendation is to move the media to the CAP. As this movement is done over the Library via SL Console, the backup application or ACSLS/HCS will not know about it. It is a good idea to take the media out of the CAP and then reintroduce it by normal means so the application and HSC/ACSLS will recover the status of the media.

If RcvrMove Fails Please contact Oracle Support and let them know as this is valuable information that local intervention is required.

Remember, for moving media to the CAP, it needs to be unreserve.

ACSLS and HSC

A good way to force a dismount of media from a drive and check if its having physical issues is to force dismount the Media over HSC or ACSLS. Force dismount will rewind the media and move it back to its home position automatically.

Refer to the ACSLS Quick Reference Guide, http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/tape-storage-curr-187744.html#software, to assist in determining whether there is a logical or physical stuck tape issue. Do a browser search using "Dismount". This should show up under "Managing Volumes".

ACSLS

ac acsss user:

$ cmd_proc -ql

$query drive all (Locate your drive)

$dismount X 0,1,1,7 force

Dismount force will do two things, update the status of the drive if it has changed and also will rewind and unload any media in it no matter the Volume media ID.

Be aware that as you have moved the media with ACSLS for the status on the backup application of the drive and of the media to be updated.

HSC

#DISM , 2202 ,, FORCE

-> Where 2202 is the drive address

-> You can replace , for the "VOLSER"

T10000 & 9940 & 9840

A reboot of a Drive, T10000, 9940 or 9840, that has a cartridge stuck inside will do a power cycle, a rewind and unload the media to a cartridge present state. If the drive does not reboot properly, please contact Oracle Support to further analyze and resolve the issue.

How to reboot a drive:

On SLConsole:

Tools-> Diagnostics -> Open Drive Folder -> Select the drive -> click Reboot

Manually:

Unlatch the drive from the Library, gently pull the drive tray back, after a couple of seconds push the drive back in.

Note:

Varying drive on ACSLS or HSC or backup application will not reboot the drive.

LTO OEM Drives

LTO Drives will not take the media out while rebooting so rebooting will not clear the load state. If the drive is reserved by a SCSI reservation or any other issue is going on, it is a good idea to reboot it prior to force dismounting by any other method.

NETBACKUP

Netbackup has a utility that is useful for determining stuck tapes.

Robtest will force a rewind and will tell the robotics to go and fetch the media from the drive.

<install_path>veritas\volmgr\bin\robtest.exe

s d returns the status of all drives

s d1 returns the status of drive 1

s s returns the status of all slots

s s1 returns the status of slot 1

unload d1 rewinds the tape in the drive and releases the read/write head

m d1 s1 moves the tape from drive 1 into slot 1

Please refer to Netbackup documentation if more information is required.

Dismounting a cartridge on a SL150:

To dismount a cartridge from the web console on the SL150, the library needs to be set offline. This will put the library offline for all the hosts.

Select the Drive that needs to be unloaded. Left click it and select Move tape. At the top, you need to confirm the drive that is selected and the slot selected is empty. Click OK.

Remember to click close and put the library back online once operation is complete.

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