Thanks to all that responded:
Sean O'Connell (sean_at_stat.Duke.EDU) suggested checking cabling &
termination, grown defects via scu>, and more importantly, reminded me
about the ddr.dbase. There were zero defects on all drives on the tape's
scsi bus, and the cabling and termination was fine, but I lacked a
specific entry for the new DDS3. I borrowed one from the Dave Rawlinson
(in the archives, at
http://www.ornl.gov/its/archives/mailing-lists/tru64-unix-managers/1997/09/msg00411.html).
Note that I added a buffer line for the 4th density (see the link), which
seemed conspicuously absent as compared to the other density entries as
listed;
Keith Strange at COMPAQ (Keith.Strange_at_compaq.com) reminded me about
a patch to isp.mod without which bizarre SCSI behavior might be expected
in certain circumstances. This wasn't the problem, but was appreciated;
Selden E Ball Jr <SEB_at_LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU> suggested checking cabling
and termination as well, described the symptoms we were seeing (bus resets
initiated by the tape, followed by tape rewinds), and (rightly) thought
the SCSI controller itself was probably not the cause;
Calvin Coghlan <ccoghlan_at_ascensionhealth.org> reminded me about the device
files - he suggested remaking them, but since the bus, target or lun's for
the drive didn't change, the old devices were (and are) fine;
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com reminded me about the long form of uerf (uerf -o)
for getting truly detailed messages. I ran the tape exerciser with this
running and the results were spectacular, pin-pointing the tape as the
problem.
...In the end, double-checking the ddr.dbase (and re-making with
ddr_config -c), followed by a reboot, seems to have gotten the tape
working.
Thanks to all
Cheers
Chris
======================================================================
Christopher C Stevenson C3004 office: (709) 737-2624
Dept. of Physics & Physical Oceanography fax: (709) 737-8739
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, Newfoundland, CANADA A1B 3X7
URL:
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~csteven
======================================================================
"A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing
its opponents and making them see the light, but
rather because its opponents eventually die and a
new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
-- Max Planck
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
-- Oscar Wilde
Received on Sun Oct 01 2000 - 14:17:19 NZDT