7

All LEDs of an half height LTO-6 drive are flashing with ~ 4 Hz. An LTO-5 tape is still inside, the drive does not react on commands, the flashing continues after a power cycle.

I could not find the error code in the Tandberg manual. The drive is ~3 years old and has just a history of ~15 full backups, the tape was written twice. So I do not expect a mechanical wear, but rather an electronic problem.

This Tandberg LTO-6 drive is an LTO-6 HP drive in individual housings, hence it would also help to know what this code means for the HP LTO-6 drive.

Who knows what the code means and where is it documented?

all LEDs of an LTO-6 drive are flashing

Jonas Stein
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about a hardware problem that should be asked of the vendor's support contact. – Jenny D Feb 10 '18 at 19:40
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    @JennyD You could close nearly all questions with that argument, because you can buy a vendor support for nearly every server related problem. – Jonas Stein Feb 10 '18 at 20:40
  • Just curious, wouldn't ~3 years suggest typically ~1000 backups, among these ~150 full backups? – Hagen von Eitzen Feb 11 '18 at 07:48
  • @HagenvonEitzen If it was used for daily backups, yes. But there are many more applications for tapes. You can use it for archiving, use it as secondary drive, backup to tape seldom and often to (...), use it to transfer big data, and so on. I am sure, there are tape drives with much more and much less than 1000 writes/3years. – Jonas Stein Feb 11 '18 at 10:20
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    @JonasStein I could close a lot of *hardware* questions with that, yes. When hardware starts behaving in a way it shouldn't, then vendor support is the way to go - if you're in a business environment, which is what ServerFault is for. Likewise, if a closed-source product doesn't work according to the manual, the vendor's support would be a good place to start. – Jenny D Feb 11 '18 at 10:27
  • This pattern is undocumented. The drive is almost certainly FUBAR. These drives usually can't be repaired and aren't worth repairing after the warranty time (repair is about the same price as a brand new one). – wazoox Feb 13 '18 at 14:12
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    @JennyD technical SE sites would be so much better without self-proclaimed off-topic police, such as yourself. When I envision your thought process, it's as if you're sitting and thinking "how could I interfere with somebody potentially helping someone else". – Marcin Kaminski Mar 06 '18 at 02:23
  • @MarcinKaminski SE sites are expressly built to be moderated by the community voting. If you dislike that model, you can by all means try to change it, but posting comments to a closed post is probably not the most constructive way of doing so. For this particular question, you can [vote to reopen](https://serverfault.com/help/reopen-questions) or post to [meta] for more people to weigh in. (Also - before writing your next comment ascribing malicious intent to others, please read the site rules [on being nice](https://serverfault.com/help/be-nice).) – Jenny D Mar 06 '18 at 07:28
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    I don't think you're in a position to lecture anyone on being nice, Maybe it wasn't malitious intent, maybe you are just like described in the third paragraph in the link you posted. Also, thank you for your explanations. Could you also write something longer on what convinced you to think I needed them/ Is thtat the false sense of superiority or the "power" of being a moderator on SE? :) – Marcin Kaminski Mar 06 '18 at 14:20
  • When a person with low rep points acts in a manner that suggests unfamiliarity with how the site works, I find it most helpful to give them the information they appear to lack. Since I am not, in fact, a moderator, it is unlikely that I have any sense of superiority or power based on that. Again, please do not ascribe malicious motivations to others. It is rude, unhelpful and unconstructive. – Jenny D Mar 07 '18 at 09:17

2 Answers2

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I googled a few examples of LTO-6 tape drives, and they all seem to have basically the same LEDs, although their arrangement varies by OEM and form factor:

  • encryption
  • cleaning required
  • tape (error)
  • drive (error)
  • ready

There is no power button LED, so my guess is that the power button and its LED are not integral parts of the drive mechanism itself, but related to the external enclosure and its power supply.

I note that all the LEDs are blinking, including the power LED. If the power LED is directly connected to the enclosure's power supply, its blinking might suggest a power supply problem, and the blinking of the tape drive's LEDs might be just a side effect of the enclosure's PSU repeatedly trying to start up and failing, 4 times per second.

Things to check:

  • Power cable firmly plugged in?
  • Incoming power OK? (no over/undervolt)
  • Does the enclosure include a fan? Is it spinning?
  • If the power supply is an external wall-wart style, does it smell bad? Feel suspiciously hot?
  • Try using a different power socket if possible.

It looks like the device might have a 3-year warranty as standard, so it might still be possible to get this fixed/replaced as a warranty support case.

telcoM
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    It is correct that the drive LEDs are the same, because all LTO-6 drives are the same. The drives can be mounted in a housing with powersupply. Tandberg puts a HP half height drive LTO-6 in this one for example. It sounds very reasonable, that the power supply restarts, this would explain, why it is not documented in the drive manual. – Jonas Stein Feb 10 '18 at 20:35
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    The manual covers *controlled* LED flashing. This is likely a case of *uncontrolled* flashing as telcoM has pointed out. – Zac67 Feb 10 '18 at 22:23
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    My experience also says this is a PSU problem. If the drive is not under warranty, you can (carefully!) disassemble the external housing to extract the standard LTO drive inside. On the rear of the drive you'll find a standard SAS power connector, unless this is the fibre channel version. Plug the extracted drive directly into a different server and see if the drive boots up normally. If so, just get a new housing; it's a lot cheaper than a new drive. Of course, if the warranty is valid send the whole thing back without disassembling it first! – madscientist159 Feb 12 '18 at 00:06
5

Assuming its a HP drive...

Its broken.

Considering you can't insert a tape... call for service

enter image description here

Journeyman Geek
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    In this LED sequence from the HP manual, only 3 LED's flash. – Jonas Stein Feb 11 '18 at 01:28
  • 3 LEDs are flashing. Light is bleeding through to the other two IMO – Journeyman Geek Feb 11 '18 at 04:00
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    No, the LEDs clearly flash all. The next nearest neighbors are not illuminated by diffuse light. The clear housing of a blue LED can not convert yellow light to blue. Even with the bad designed devices, where neighbor LEDs are illuminated too, it would not illuminate the power LED in 10 cm distance and a different housing. – Jonas Stein Feb 11 '18 at 11:11