Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 09:11:23 -0700 From: David Bear <David.Bear@asu.edu> To: Dan Nelson <dnelson@allantgroup.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: scsi tape errors Message-ID: <20040317161123.GA15265@asu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20040317031802.GC6496@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20040317024639.GH6174@asu.edu> <20040317031802.GC6496@dan.emsphone.com>
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Thanks for the advice. I appreciate all the insights. However, my experience suggest that either I'm doing things very wrong, or I'm using the wrong hardware for BSD. Since the kernel dumps so much information when the scsi bus behaves strangely, isn't there some way to decode from the kernel messages what could really be happening? I ran a full system dump to a tape yesterday. The dump proceeded without error untill it fill the tape, 35 gig. When I put in a new tape, then things began to act strangely. After a full power down and reboot, things are still misbehaving. When I attempt to read the tape the dump wrote without error, I get i/o errors. Even commands like "mt status" and "mt offline" cause the input/output error message... and lots of kernel messages similar to what I posted. I'm beginning to wonder if my scsi card has something wrong with it. There's got to be a better way to trouble shoot/track down, diagnose this. btw, I am using an adaptec 29160 wide card.. I am using a wide cable to connect the externel tape unit. And I am using an active terminator on the tape unit. (It does have an LED to signify I guess that it is powered) Are there any additional tools that I can use to check whether this is really a tape device issue, a scsi device issue... etc.? On Tue, Mar 16, 2004 at 09:18:03PM -0600, Dan Nelson wrote: > In the last episode (Mar 16), David Bear said: > > I am getting error messages that don't make much sense. They would > > lead me to beleive that the tape is bad... I guess. Yet, I have a > > hard time beleiving that the two out of four tapes is bad. > > > > issuing an 'mt erase' it get an input/output error. > > > > below are the kernel messages. > > > > could two tapes suddenly just become 'bad'? > > > > Since these are ait tapes and have a 64k ram buffer, I'm wondering if > > there may be some bad data there and if there is a way to clear it... > > > > The tape unit is a sony sdx300c. I've updated it to the latest > > firmware. Its attached to an adaptec 2940wide. > > Is it possible that erasing an AIT tape takes more than 4 minutes? > That's how long the cam layer will wait for an erase command to > complete. Try adding > > options SA_ERASE_TIMEOUT=10*60 > > and rebuilding your kernel. > > -- > Dan Nelson > dnelson@allantgroup.com -- David Bear phone: 480-965-8257 fax: 480-965-9189 College of Public Programs/ASU Wilson Hall 232 Tempe, AZ 85287-0803 "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"
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