[HPADM] Is Output from DDS Lying?

From: Dave T. (davidlt77@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 21 2003 - 08:20:36 EDT


A script that runs a make_tape_recovery from cron at night failed. The
operator here had to put a DDS tape into the drive in the evening in order
for the script to run successfully. The script first checks the status of
the drive before attempting to run the make_tape_recovery, and it writes the
output to a log. The error was as follows:

Drive: HP C1537A
Format: DDS-2 format
Status: [45112400] BOT write-protected online compression
immediate-report-mode
File: 0
Block: 0

The operator swears the tape was writeable, and he claimed that he has seen
this happen many times in twenty years as an operator. In my nine years as
a systems administrator, I have never seen this happen, but maybe it does
occasionally, which leads to my reason for posting on this list. I have two
questions for you:

1. Can anyone verify the operator's claim that DDS drives occasionally
report a tape as write-protected, when it isn't?
2. On another note, in the past, the log has shown that no tape was in the
drive at all, when the operator has claimed he put one in. Has anyone seen
a DDS drive bogusly report that a tape is not in the drive, when in fact,
one is?

Thnx,

Dave

_________________________________________________________________
See when your friends are online with MSN Messenger 6.0. Download it now
FREE! http://msnmessenger-download.com

--
             ---> Please post QUESTIONS and SUMMARIES only!! <---
        To subscribe/unsubscribe to this list, contact majordomo@dutchworks.nl
       Name: hpux-admin@dutchworks.nl     Owner: owner-hpux-admin@dutchworks.nl
 
 Archives:  ftp.dutchworks.nl:/pub/digests/hpux-admin       (FTP, browse only)
            http://www.dutchworks.nl/htbin/hpsysadmin   (Web, browse & search)


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat Apr 12 2008 - 11:02:35 EDT