Dell PowerVault LTO-5-140 Storage User's Guide - Page 44

Fixing SAS Connectivity Problems If there appears to be a problem connecting or communicating with the drive, follow this procedure. 1. Ensure that the power is on to the tape drive. 2. Replace the SAS cable and interposers, if any, and retry the failing operation. 3. If these measures do not correct the problem, contact Dell customer support. Resolving Media-Related Problems To resolve problems that are related to media, the tape drive's firmware includes: l Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic that verifies whether a suspect cartridge and its magnetic tape are acceptable for use. l Statistical Analysis and Reporting System (SARS) to assist in isolating failures between media and hardware. To determine the cause of failure, SARS uses the cartridge performance history that is saved in the cartridge memory (CM) and the drive performance history that is kept in the drive's Vital Product Data (VPD) area in Non Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM). Any failures that SARS detects are reported as TapeAlert flags on the system (see " TapeAlert Flags"). If you encounter a media-related problem, use the following procedure: NOTICE: When you run the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic, data on the suspect tape is overwritten. If valuable data is on the tape, be sure to copy the data before running this test. 1. If possible, run the tape cartridge in a different tape drive. If the operation in the other tape drive fails and or displays, replace the media. If the operation succeeds, run the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic (see Function Code E in "Selecting a Diagnostic or Maintenance Function "). 2. If the Test Cartridge & Media diagnostic fails, replace the media. If it runs successfully, clean the tape drive and run the tape drive diagnostics (see the "Cleaning the Tape Mechanism" section and Function Code 1 in "Selecting a Diagnostic or Maintenance Function"). 3. If the tape drive diagnostics fail, contact Dell technical support. If the tape drive diagnostics run successfully, perform the operation that produced the initial media error. Removing an Internal SAS Tape Drive To remove an internal SAS tape drive from the system, perform the following steps: 1. Ensure that the tape drive does not contain a tape cartridge. 2. De-configure the drive from the system. (For instructions, see your system's documentation.) 3. Turn off the power to the system. Disconnect the power cable from the system and the electrical outlet. 4. Remove system cover. 5. Disconnect the internal SAS cable from the tape drive (see number 1 in Figure 4. Rear Panel of Internal SAS Tape Drive ). 6. Remove the tape drive from the system and remove any mounting screws or rails from the side or bottom of the tape drive. 7. To reassemble, reverse these steps. TapeAlert TapeAlert is a patented technology and standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that defines conditions and problems that are experienced by tape drives. The technology enables a system to read TapeAlert flags from a tape drive through the SCSI interface. The system reads the flags from Log Sense Page 0x2E. TapeAlert Flags Table 7 lists the TapeAlert flags that are supported by the Dell PowerVault LTO-5 140HH Tape Drive. Table 7. TapeAlert Flags and Descriptions Flag Number Flag Parameter (in hex) Flag 3 03h Hard error 4 04h Media TapeAlert Flags Supported by the Tape Drive Description Action Required Set for any unrecoverable read, write, or positioning error. (This flag is set in conjunction with flags 4, 5, or 6.) See the Action Required column for Flag 4, 5, or 6 in this table. Set for any unrecoverable read, write, or positioning error that is due to a faulty tape Contact Dell technical support. cartridge.