David,

AIT-2 in native mode isn't supported yet but...

Depending on the compressibility of the data, 50 GB may fill the tape. What kind of data are we dealing with, binaries, graphics, image, etc.? What quantity of data are we dealing with on the filer, before any compression?

Are you using the dump command, or third party software to manage your backups? If manually using dump, what is the command you're entering?

I understand that you're using nrst0a, I don't know why the abort occurs. Is there anything in /etc/messages or /etc/ndmplog.yyyymmdd that help define why the abort occurs? If you're using third party backup software, are there any messages that help us define the cause of the abort?

Based on the problem you've described, I don't think that going from 5.3.4R2 to 5.3.4R3 is going to resolve the issue.

Thanks, Bill Roth

-----Original Message----- From: David H. Brierley [mailto:dhb@ssd.ray.com] Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 3:05 PM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Problems encountered with AIT-2 tape drive on F740 server

I am having a problem on one of my machines and I was wondering if anyone has encountered anything similar.

I have an F740 running 5.3.4R2, with a directly attached AIT-2 tape library. When I first tested the tape drive it performed wonderfully. Once I was happy with the 740 and with the tape drive, I moved the bulk of the data from a pair of old F230's over to the F740. The problem I then encountered is that when I am dumping to the tape it writes 50 gig and then aborts. I am using the "36C" AIT-2 tapes and I am accessing the tape drive using device "nrst0a", so I should be able to write approximately 72 gig of data to the tape. I have tried several different tapes and get the same results. I also tried setting the tape drive into DLT7000 emulation and I still get the same results.

The qeustion now is: is there something wrong with the tape drive or is this a problem with 5.3.4R2? Should I try upgrading to 5.3.4R3? I have another F740 with a DLT7000 library on it and it seems to work just fine. Did I blunder badly by switching to AIT-2?

Please help!!!!!