[SunHELP] Tape drive problem

Tue Aug 26 12:49:08 CDT 2003

	I Popped down to the NOC and took a look physically at the drive. It
is actually a 611 case. It has an auto term light on teh back labeled low
and high but neither is lit up. the SCSI cable connecting it to the system
is connected to the connector labeled out. Is all this correct or do I need
to change something?


> the 411 device is "regular" scsi device.
> it requires a terminator at the end of the scsi chain to work 
> properly.
> (on the 411 device according to your description.)
> i would suggest installing the appropriate terminator and 
> testing agin.
> 
> a 411 device will not work connected to a differential scsi 
> controller.
> 
> can you see the tape drive from the obp?
> what is the scsi address of the tape drive?
> 
> o'reilly and associates now has a book out on google.  you might find
> it helpful.
> 
> --- "Michael A. Turner" <mturner at whro.org> wrote:
> > 	Hello all,
> > 	
> > 	we are trying to get the tape drive attached to our sunfire 280R
> > working and I am having problems. First the background 
> info. The tape
> > drive
> > is External in a 411 style case. It is a DDS4 tape drive, single
> > tape. We
> > are running Solaris 8 on this system. The tape drive is raw device
> > /dev/rmt/0 . The drive has a brand new fuji DDS4 tape in it 
> that came
> > with
> > the system. All teh examples below are done once I am SU into root.
> > The
> > cable to the device looks tight. Their is a storedge array but that
> > is
> > connected to a different SCSI connector on the back of the sunfire.
> > There is
> > no terminator on the Tape drives other connector and nothing is
> > attached to
> > it.
> > 
> > 
> > 	Now the symptoms.
> > 
> > mt -f /dev/rmt/0 status shows
> > HP DDS-4 DAT (Sun) tape drive:
> >    sense key(0x6)= Unit Attention   residual= 0   retries= 0
> >    file no= 0   block no= 0
> > 
> > mt -f /dev/rmt/0 rewind and mt -f /dev/rmt/0 erase seem to 
> both work.
> > The
> > drive operates as if it is working
> > 
> > tar has problems though. 
> > 
> > /users/mturner [11:31am]->tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 setpath
> > a setpath 1 tape blocks
> > /test [11:34am]->tar xvf /dev/rmt/0 setpath
> > tar: tape read error
> > 
> > on the Console I see
> > 
> > Aug 26 11:34:48 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: /pci at 8,700000/scsi
> > @6,1/st at 4,0
> > (st18):
> > Aug 26 11:34:48 TeamWHRO         SCSI transport failed: reason
> > 'unexpected_bus_free':giving up
> > 
> > the stats for file setpath are
> > 
> > -rwxrwxrwx   1 root     other        246 Jul 31 15:19 setpath
> > 
> > running the command again I get
> > 
> > /test [11:34am]->tar xvf /dev/rmt/0 setpath
> > tar: tape read error
> > 
> > and to the console
> > 
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1
> > (glm1):
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO        gross error - not connected
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1
> > (glm1):
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO        got SCSI bus reset
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: 
> /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1/st at 4,0
> > (st18):
> > Aug 26 11:39:57 TeamWHRO        SCSI transport failed: reason
> > 'reset':
> > giving up
> > 
> > attempts on a larger file tend to go much more poorly
> > 
> > -rw-r--r--   1 root     other    9095680 Aug 26 11:14
> > Archive27546.tar
> > 
> > Taking an extremely long time to time out. Kill -9 will not stop the
> > tar
> > process
> > 
> > /users/mturner [12:47pm]->tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 Archive27546.tar
> > a Archive27546.tar 17765 tape blocks
> > tar: write error: I/O error
> > 
> > With the same sort of SCSI error going to the console 
> > 
> > Aug 26 12:49:17 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1
> > (glm1):
> > Aug 26 12:49:17 TeamWHRO        got SCSI bus reset
> > Aug 26 12:49:17 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: 
> /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1/st at 4,0
> > (st18):
> > Aug 26 12:49:17 TeamWHRO        SCSI transport failed: reason
> > 'reset':
> > giving up
> > 
> > Control C and Control Break do not stop the operation. The telnet
> > window is
> > locked in the tar command.
> > again we see kill -9 failing
> > 
> > /users/mturner [12:51pm]->ps -A | grep tar
> >  28322 pts/4    0:00 tar
> > /users/mturner [12:57pm]->kill -9 28322
> > /users/mturner [12:58pm]->ps -A | grep tar
> >  28322 pts/4    0:00 tar
> > 
> > ten minutes later I get this at the console. I see killed at the
> > telnet
> > window
> > 
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING:
> > /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1 (glm1):
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO        Connected command timeout for Target
> > 4.0
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1
> > (glm1):
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO        got SCSI bus reset
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO scsi: WARNING: 
> /pci at 8,700000/scsi at 6,1/st at 4,0
> > (st18):
> > Aug 26 12:59:26 TeamWHRO        SCSI transport failed: reason
> > 'timeout':
> > giving up
> > 
> > Googling so far has turned up ntohing. does anyone havea  clue to
> > what is
> > causing this?
> > 
> > 
> > Michael A. Turner
> > Systems Engineer WHRO
> > michael.turner at whro.org
> > http://www.whro.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > SunHELP maillist  -  SunHELP at sunhelp.org
> > http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/sunhelp