MSL4048 Tape Library - Tape Alert Flag: 0x04, 4

 

I have a misbehaving Tape Library (HP Storever MSL4048 aka MSL G3 Series) running on latest firmware - 8.60 / 3.20e with BackupExec 2010.

 

Recently, our tape library has been showing a status of 'Media Attention' (clickable link in the console) that when clicked shows a flurry of red slots/tapes (LTO5). When expanding the magazine details, I can see the tapes a status of 'Media Error'.

 

The first thing I did was remove all the reportedly bad tapes, let the library rescan, inserted the reportedly bad tapes back in and performed another rescan. The errors had gone, the inventory task in BEXEC worked and all was fine. Hours later the same thing occurred but this time, it was reporting more media with errors. The confusing part was that some of the bad tapes it originally reported were OK, some of the originally reported bad tapes were in error and tapes that originally did not have the error were now reporting 'Media Error'.

 

Having dug further in the tape library logs, I saw a crap load of:

 

 

There were also some other logs reported but not as many as the one above:

 

14.09.01 20:19:41.24  Libctrl task Error - ME: invalid cartridge
     Return status: 0x80 - command failed
     Global error code: 0x63 - ME: invalid cartridge
     Task originator: 0x00 - Libctrl task
     Extender library specifier: 0x00 - master library
     Source element type.: 0x04 - tape drive
     Element number: 0x02, 2

 

I decided to remove all the tapes from the library and inserted a fresh new batch of LTO5s - guess what? Same error.

 

Everything was working fine up until last week. I believe the tapes are also fine because we have another library robot that I loaded all the reportedly bad media/tapes into and they were accepted and used as normal.

 

The only thing that sticks out is a faulty robot? However, before I jump the gun, I would be grateful if you could offer your opinion of this or let me know if you have come across this error before and how you managed to resolve it.

 

I have attached 4 screenys showing the errrors.

 

Thanks