Tape erase - invalid block size

[Strecker25]

Hi everyone, I've brought this to support and reached level 2 but we were not able to come up with a solution.

We have two Dell libraries a Tl4000 and a TL2000 that we are trying to write backups to. Our tapes were used previously in Catlogic Syncstort/DPX and while some of them work for Veeam others are throwing errors and cannot erase, write, inventory, etc. The error is:

2/19/2016 9:38:06 AM Error Failed to erase tape 000013L5 Error: Cannot set block size: 1048576setMediaParameters error: Tape error: '87' (The parameter is incorrect.)

Does anyone know a way to manually erase or set block size outside of Veeam on Dell Libraries? They're actually IBM tape drives but none of the utilities appear to give the option to erase.

This is killing us, we have a bunch of tapes that we need to use for Veeam so any help is appreciated.

[Dima P.]

Hi Ryan,

If we are talking about v9 version, you can change the drive block size by going to tape drive properties in the VBR Console.

I've brought this to support and reached level 2 but we were not able to come up with a solution.

Do you have the case ID? Thanks.

[Strecker25]

We did try and none of the block sizes work either. The case ID was 01689109

[Dima P.]

Thanks. Can you clarify what tape drives are used inside these libraries (assuming its IBM or Quantum)?

[Strecker25]

Sure thing, they're IBM ULTIRUM 5 HH 3580 TAPE DRIVE

What's interesting is the invalid block size that veeam is showing ( 1048576) is the block size that appears under driver, tape media capacity in device manager. Yet, only some tapes have issues.

[Dima P.]

Then this tool might work (at least I know QA team is using it from time to time to test tapes and drives). I was told it can perform erase as well.

[Strecker25]

None of this works, the third party applications either don't seem to offer a straight "erase" or they run through the tests and nothing happens. Extremely frustrated with Veeam's tape support at the moment. We have a pile of LTO5's we cannot use and we are running out of tapes.

[veremin]

Hi, Ryan,

Just so you know - there are several already known issues with tape erase operation existing in version 9. We're going to address those in Update 1 that should be released soon.

Thanks.

[Strecker25]

I see, I can now not erase any tapes that were not previously erased with Veeam. We have 100's of tapes that are now unusable, U1 cannot come soon enough

[Strecker25]

An update for anyone with tape erase issues.

an application called MT is working for a quick erase, which then allows Veeam to do its traditional short erase.

It is free, located here

http://www.holistech.co.uk/sw/mt/mt.html

Hope this helps someone else as well, until U1 is released

[adam_c]

Currently this is a known bug with a work-around:

Mark such tapes as free and move them to any media pool. Erase might still fail, but job will overwrite these tapes without any problems.

As noted above, these will be addressed in Update 1.

[Strecker25]

That solution did not work for us, when it tried to write to the "free" tape it would fail with invalid block size.

[veremin]

Sorry to hear. Hopefully, the upcoming update will solve that issues for you and others once and for all. Thank you for understanding.

[kewnev]

Many thanks Strecker!

Just want to report that this utility did the trick. It's a simple standalone command line utility.

Originally, VB&R v9 returned an MTF error so I tried using the manufacturer tape drive utility to perform an erase. Didn't have much luck, and then VB&R returned a block size error on the tape.

So I then tried the MT utility that Strecker suggested. I used this command:

mt shorterase tape0

As simple as that! VB&R was then able to Inventory and Quick Erase the tape successfully.

An update for anyone with tape erase issues.

an application called MT is working for a quick erase, which then allows Veeam to do its traditional short erase.

It is free, located here

http://www.holistech.co.uk/sw/mt/mt.html

Hope this helps someone else as well, until U1 is released

[Dima P.]

Thanks for confirming the solution!

For all newcomers – feel free to open a support case and request the Update 1 (support team should start pilot deployments at the end of this week) or use the proposed workaround.

[Moebius]

I have a similar issue.
Just installed v9 and started using the tape features; never used Veeam for tapes before.
I have an IBM TS3200 tape library with two IBM ULT3580-TD4 drives and many LTO4 tapes that were used with TSM until now.
Trying to back up to tapes or erase them I got the Tape error 87 (Cannot set block size).

Strecker's MT utility solved the issue for me too. I used the same command kewnew suggested after mounting manually the tapes to the drives.
Thank you both!

[Moebius]

I was under the impression that Update 1 of VBR9 should solve this issue.
Unfortunately, this is not the case and the problem is still there.

[Dima P.]

Lucio,

May I ask you to open a new support case or if have the previous one opened, report to the support team that Update 1 did not help. We need a fresh portion of logs to ‘restart’ the investigation process.

[Moebius]

May I ask you to open a new support case or if have the previous one opened, report to the support team that Update 1 did not help. We need a fresh portion of logs to ‘restart’ the investigation process.

Case # 01751344.

[Dima P.]

Thanks. The case was shared with QA team – I’ll follow up once I hear anything.

[kingbuzzo]

I have a similar issue with v.9 with update 1 except its a Quantum Super Loader III.

I tried manually erasing the tapes with the MT utility however Veeam still fails with error 87.

I have a ticket open with Veeam on this as well.

[kingbuzzo]

quick update:

- removed tape drivers
- uninstalled Veeam
- shutdown server
- disconnected Tape Drive
- re-sharted server
- ensured there were no driver remnants in device mangler
- shutdown server
- re-connected tape drive
- re-started server
- re-installed Quantum drivers
- re-installed Veeam, re-applied update 1
- re-started
- re-ran tape job
working!

[nthelen]

We have the same issue:

13.04.2016 21:15:36 Error Failed to inventory tape in Drive 1 (Server: Local Tape Server, Library: IBM ULTRIUM-HH5, Drive ID: Tape0) Error: Cannot set block size: 2097152setMediaParameters error: Tape error: '87' (Falscher Parameter)

I made a quick erase with mt, Firmware Flash and driver update. Same issue, only with new tapes!

[Dima P.]

Hi nthelen,

Are you running the VBR v9 with latest Update 1? Please open a support case and post the case ID to this thread for tracking purposes. Thanks.

[Protey]

This problem occurs when your tape has been erase on the other controller with support for large blocks.
Solutions:
Clean the tape using mt tools or HPE Library and tape tools.

[TomaszB]

Hi

Have the same issue VBR 9 Update1 with IBM library.
Seems IBM ITDT tool offers only long erase.

Case # 01759375

thx

[Michael W.]

Hi,

we have also the invalid block size error. identical message:

Cannot set block size: 2097152setMediaParameters error: Tape error: '87' (Falscher Parameter)

Tapes were new and never been used in a other tape device before, update 1 was installed also before.

Erasing the tapes with the ibm itdt tool helped but it is a workaround not really a solution for us.

Case # 01789772

[veremin]

Michael, Tomasz, what block size is specified in the settings of library drives? Drives -> select needed one -> right-click on it -> Properties? And what happens if you set 512K value? Thanks.

[TomaszB]

Hi

It doesn't meter what value I put there or in registry. I always get error:
"Failed to erase tape 998AMRL6 Error: Cannot set block size: 1048576setMediaParameters error: Tape error: '87' (The parameter is incorrect.)"

I had Veeam support engineer searching for solution in "remote session" on my server with no result.


thx

[veremin]

I was not talking about registry, but rather about graphical interface.

Anyway, let's support team analyze it further and escalate it to R&D, if required.

Thanks.