From owner-freebsd-scsi Sat Jul 5 18:07:06 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id SAA28083 for freebsd-scsi-outgoing; Sat, 5 Jul 1997 18:07:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from weenix.guru.org (phantasma.bevc.blacksburg.va.us [198.82.200.65]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA28078 for ; Sat, 5 Jul 1997 18:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from kmitch@localhost) by weenix.guru.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id VAA12128; Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:06:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Keith Mitchell Message-Id: <199707060106.VAA12128@weenix.guru.org> Subject: Re: Archive Viper and 3940UW (bad Drive?) In-Reply-To: <199707052152.PAA26449@pluto.plutotech.com> from "Justin T. Gibbs" at "Jul 5, 97 03:52:49 pm" To: gibbs@plutotech.com (Justin T. Gibbs) Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:06:59 -0400 (EDT) Cc: scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL30 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > You shouldn't have to erase used tapes before using them either. OK, that is what I thought originally, but then given that erasing them "seemingly" solved the timeout problem I don't know what to think. What does erasing a tape actually do? It doesn't take but a few seconds. My guess is it basically erases the header info that says there is data there, but I really don't know. > If the tape drive needs to look at the media before it can respond, then > the .5s timeouts are way too short. I don't know if it actually looks at the media, but the "busy" light on the drive comes on (of course that light comes on and stays on while the tape is mounted). > >I am not exactly sure what the cause was. Whether everytime amanda > >rewrote the header, the filemark got longer or what happened. Erasing > >the tapes did seem to fix it though. Right now, I am running without > >any mods to the timeout values and all seems to be working correctly > >(since I erased the tapes). > > Which will last for how many months before your dumps panic the system > again?? 8-) Yes, but even if the timeout values were adjusted, it would eventually panic the system on those values as well (given the fact that over time the access to the tape seems to take longer). -- Keith Mitchell Head Administrator: acm.vt.edu Email: kmitch@weenix.guru.org PGP key available upon request http://weenix.guru.org/~kmitch Address and URL (c) 1997 Keith Mitchell - All Rights Reserved Unauthorized use or duplication prohibited