LTO tapes, life expectancy w. write cycles

[MSc]

How is the calculated lifetime of an LTO tape generated in Veeam?

We're getting warnings after 34 write cycles for a LTO8 tape... which seems extremly low. I remember something like 200 passes from the spec?!

[quote][i]TapeDrive alert: The tape cartridge is nearing the end of its calculated life. It is recommended that you:. Use another tape cartridge for your next backup. Store this tape in a safe place in case you need to restore data from it.[/i][/quote]

This "early" warning seems costly for the customer... so on what metrics is the warning based?

Thanks!!

[MSc]

Is there a way to check which error code generates this warning? https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110
Is that alert code 19 (0x13)? Where can I find that?! This Alert Code is classified as "Information" not "Warning" but still shows up as a yellow warning alert in the status email.

And which tape cartridge is it? The warning does not reference a tape cartridge in it's text... there are two tapes in this job.



Thanks!

[lyapkost]

Hi Martin.

The alert is generated by the tape drive and displayed by VBR 'as is'. It is shown as warning as well as all other non-critical drive alerts to pay more customer's attention. The criteria upon which a tape drive decides whether the media is wearing out are different from vendor to vendor. For example, number of load/unload opeartions may exceed a theshold while amount of written data doesn't. It is recommended to install vendor-specific tools to find out the reason. For example, HP recommends customers deploy the intelligent diagnostic tools, HP TapeAlert and HP L&TT, to apply best practice rotation strategies.

To understand which tape causes the warning you may open job's log located in C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup\Jobname, search for the alert text and a line about 10 lines before that alert:

Code: Select all

Info [TapeLoader] Moving tape XXXXXXL8 to Drive N

It shows the desired tape. I think it's a place for an improvement for us to display this information directly in session logs and e-mails.

[MSc]

Thanks for the pointers!

I could now specify the "offending" LTO8 tape and have contacted the vendor.
This is a DELL-rebranded IBM tape library... we'll see if they can come up with some sensible answers...

Best, Martin

[MSc]

Just for closure:

After checking the tape lib. and drive logs, this was declared a "broken" LTO8 tape... which then was replaced by DELL w/o any hassle... Since this tape is due for overwriting soon, we'll just replace the cartridge.

[Dima P.]

Martin,

Sounds good, thank you for sharing the update!

[WinstonWolf]

Good Morning ,

Today Veeam Tape Backup shows the following Warning :
02.11.2021 03:18:19 :: TapeDrive alert: The tape cartridge has reached the end of its calculated useful life:. Copy data you need to another tape. Discard the old tape.
When i look to the properties of the retired Tape i see that it has 40 write and o read cycles .
For me it sounds too less for retireing a Tape . Or is it normal ?

Thanks
Michael

[Gostev]

Merged into the existing discussion... please use search before creating new topics in future. Thanks!