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Tape Test Widget |
  
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Tape Test Widget |
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Command-Line Invocation and Application Notes
TapeAlert refers to the capability of a tape device to provide detailed diagnostic information using the ANSI standard interface, conveniently called TapeAlert. Many modern SCSI and Fibre Channel tape drives support this feature. In general, the more expensive and robust a tape or auto changer is, the higher the probability it will have this feature.
Although the ANSI specification defines 64 flags, (click here to see it) several of them are reserved for future use. In addition, not all flags are used by all tape devices. See the table below for details. SMARTMon-UX reports all of the flags. In order to poll tape devices automatically, invoke the program with the -X option and be sure to pass it the physical device names for your tape devices. If the tape does not support TapeAlert, the program will tell you and move on.
If you wish to view the TapeAlert-related capabilities of your tape or auto changer, invoke the program with the -X+ option. This will cause it to report all supported and unsupported TapeAlert features.
SMARTMon-ux [Release 1.12, Build 18-AUG-2002] - Copyright 2002 SANtools, Inc. http://www.SANtools.com
Discovered TANDBERG SLR7 S/N "SN007005396" on \\.\TAPE0 (tape - TapeAlert enabled) [Adapter/ID.LUN=3/3.0]
TapeAlert status and capabilities dump below:
Read Warning : Unsupported
Write Warning : Passed
Hard Error : Passed
Media Error : Passed
Read Error : Passed
Write Error : Unsupported
End of Media Life : Unsupported
Not Data Grade : Unsupported
Write Protect : Unsupported
No Removal : Unsupported
Cleaning Media : Unsupported
Unsupported Format : Unsupported
Recoverable Snapped Tape : Unsupported
Unrecoverable Snapped Tape : Unsupported
Memory Chip Failure : Unsupported
Forced Eject : Unsupported
Read-Only Format : Unsupported
Tape Directory Corrupted : Unsupported
Nearing Media Life : Passed
Clean Now : Unsupported
Clean Periodic : Passed
Expired Cleaning Media : Unsupported
Invalid Cleaning Media : Unsupported
Retention Requested : Unsupported
Dual-Ported Interface Error : Unsupported
Cooling Fan Failure : Unsupported
Power Supply Failure : Unsupported
Power Consumption : Unsupported
Drive Maintenance : Unsupported
Hardware Fault A : Passed
Hardware Fault B : Unsupported
Interface : Unsupported
Eject Media : Unsupported
Download Fail : Unsupported
Drive Humidity : Unsupported
Drive Temperature : Unsupported
Drive Voltage : Unsupported
Predictive Failure : Unsupported
Diagnostics Required : Unsupported
Loader Hardware A : Unsupported
Loader Stray Tape : Unsupported
Loader Hardware B : Unsupported
Loader Door : Unsupported
Loader Hardware C : Unsupported
Loader Magazine : Unsupported
Loader Predictive Failure : Unsupported
Lost Statistics : Unsupported
Tape Directory Invalid at Unload : Unsupported
Tape System : Unsupported
Tape System Read Failure : Unsupported
No Start of Data : Unsupported
Loading Failure : Unsupported
Discovered HP C1533A S/N " " on \\.\TAPE1 (tape - TapeAlert enabled) [Adapter/ID.LUN=3/6.0]
TapeAlert status and capabilities dump below:
Read Warning : ReportableInFailureOnly
Write Warning : ReportableInFailureOnly
Hard Error : ReportableInFailureOnly
Media Error : ReportableInFailureOnly
Read Error : ReportableInFailureOnly
Write Error : ReportableInFailureOnly
End of Media Life : ReportableInFailureOnly
Not Data Grade : ReportableInFailureOnly
Write Protect : ReportableInFailureOnly
No Removal : ReportableInFailureOnly
Cleaning Media : ReportableInFailureOnly
Unsupported Format : ReportableInFailureOnly
Recoverable Snapped Tape : ReportableInFailureOnly
Unrecoverable Snapped Tape : ReportableInFailureOnly
Memory Chip Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Forced Eject : ReportableInFailureOnly
Read-Only Format : ReportableInFailureOnly
Tape Directory Corrupted : ReportableInFailureOnly
Nearing Media Life : ReportableInFailureOnly
Clean Now : ReportableInFailureOnly
Clean Periodic : ReportableInFailureOnly
Expired Cleaning Media : ReportableInFailureOnly
Invalid Cleaning Media : ReportableInFailureOnly
Retention Requested : ReportableInFailureOnly
Dual-Ported Interface Error : ReportableInFailureOnly
Cooling Fan Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Power Supply Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Power Consumption : ReportableInFailureOnly
Drive Maintenance : ReportableInFailureOnly
Hardware Fault A : ReportableInFailureOnly
Hardware Fault B : ReportableInFailureOnly
Interface : ReportableInFailureOnly
Eject Media : ReportableInFailureOnly
Download Fail : ReportableInFailureOnly
Drive Humidity : ReportableInFailureOnly
Drive Temperature : ReportableInFailureOnly
Drive Voltage : ReportableInFailureOnly
Predictive Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Diagnostics Required : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Hardware A : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Stray Tape : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Hardware B : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Door : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Hardware C : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Magazine : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loader Predictive Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Lost Statistics : ReportableInFailureOnly
Tape Directory Invalid at Unload : ReportableInFailureOnly
Tape System : ReportableInFailureOnly
Tape System Read Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
No Start of Data : ReportableInFailureOnly
Loading Failure : ReportableInFailureOnly
Terminating program.
In the situation above, there are two tape drives attached. The Tandberg drive has full TapeAlert capability and including the ability to report to a calling program programmatically which features it supports. The HP drive also supports TapeAlert, but it is not smart enough to let a program know exactly what features it supports.
Be sure to refer to the ANSI specification images to know exactly what each message means and whether they are informational, warnings, or critical messages.
If you invoke SMARTMON-UX with the -X option, it will poll tapes at the specified polling periods and produce a message such as:
\\.\TAPE0 polled at Sun Aug 18 23:19:21 2002 Status:Passed
If there was a problem, you might see:
\\.\TAPE0 polled at Sun Aug 18 23:26:49 2002 Status:Not Data Grade - The cartridge is not data grade. Data written to it will be at risk.
Note that it is possible that in the event of a TapeAlert, you will get more than one message per polling cycle.
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