Tape Write Cycles stuck at 67/68

[moctad_harry]

Hi All,

We're using a Dell TL4000 library and LTO7 media, lots of the tapes have north of 100 write cycles and are approaching their retirement, however, VBR (10.0.0.4461 P2) only sees 67/68 write cycles when going into the tape properties.

The web interface of the Tape Library recognises this as having 100+ write cycles and seems to keep the correct count.

The firmware for the library and the drives is up to date.

Its not a massive issue but thought I may have found a bug.

Support ID #04331511

Thanks,

Harry

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Harry.

Interesting case. Veeam queries tape drive for the total amount of data read\written to the media and divides that number to full cartridge capacity, essentially gaining amount of full read\write cycles. That result is presented under tape properties. Maybe tape's webUI has different logic of calculating data cycles.

[moctad_harry]

Hi Egor,

Think you've cracked it. On a 5.5TB LTO7 cartridge when job 1 writes 4TB, then job 2 writes 1TB would count as 5TB written to the tape. Veeam would see this as 90%+ of the first write, and the Dell Tape Library would see this as two cycles (and so the disparity would grow over time). Potentially the TL4000 stops feeding back tape statistics after a certain point and that's why the Veeam tape properties don't grow above that point.

No further action needed just had me puzzled.

Thanks,

Harry

[Egor Yakovlev]

Thanks for the update.
Glad it sorted out.
/Cheers!