Ken wrote:
>
> Sent HP RC a sample DLT cartridge that failed VSTORE.  I just
> got the word today that the Expert Center confirmed the failure;
> fails same way on their machine.  Problem is in the hands of the
> Lab for a patch to fix.
>
> THE KICKER  (I have *no* idea how):    Latest best guess from
> the Expert Center / Lab is that this VSTORE (RESTORE too, as
> far as anyone knows) failure is DATA DEPENDENT !!!!...:  They
> *think* if you have just the right combination of a large number of
> relatively small files and / or one or more large files with a lot of
> white space, it can trigger this failure (!!!! (end of "!" quota) ).
> If the lab is right, at least this provides some explanation of the
> seemingly random, "wide" swings in the standard deviation rate
> and frequency of failure occurrence:  Number of files and size of
> many of same would change incrementally from one backup to
> the next;  perhaps pushing us from "pass VSTORE" to fail and
> then back again on a day-to-day basis.

I would not be surprised if the 'guess' from the Expert Center
engineer is holding true.

I have worked (quite a while ago) on a STORE problem with DLT4000,
where STORE would receive a media write failed condition and
marked the DLT media bad, when a larger number of 'empty' (EOF=0)
files were stored. This was finally tracked down to be a firmware
defect in the first released DLT4000 firmware version (rev 80),
and fixed by Quantum in a later revision (rev 115, AFAIR).

I suggest to make sure the firmware revision of your DLTs gets
checked (unless this has alread happened).

Goetz 'also guessing for a living :-)'