adw@isg.cs.reading.ac.uk (Anthony Worrall) (06/05/91)
We have beening doing dumps onto an Exabyte connected to a 4/380 under SUNOS 4.1.1 rev B using Sony QG-112M tapes. Recently we have started to get write errors with the error message st1: write failed st1 error: sense key(0x5): illegal request This error message seems to be tape dependent and has occurred on the Exabyte tape supplied with the drive as well as the Sony tapes. I had the Sun engineer in and we changed the drive the cables and finally the CPU board which seemed to cure the problem, but now it is back again. Cleaning the Exabyte does not have any effect. I have occasionly used TDK P5-90EHG tapes without any problem but they have not seen much re-use. Does anyone know what is causing the problem and what the cure might be. Cheers Anthony.Worrall@Reading.ac.uk
tim@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Tim Wood) (06/13/91)
In article <3421@brchh104.bnr.ca> adw@isg.cs.reading.ac.uk (Anthony Worrall) writes: >We have beening doing dumps onto an Exabyte connected to a 4/380 under >SUNOS 4.1.1 rev B using Sony QG-112M tapes. Recently we have started to >get write errors with the error message > > st1: write failed > st1 error: sense key(0x5): illegal request Could it be that you are at the exact end-of-volume when this occurs? This happened to me with a QIC-24; the sense key error seemed to be when writing a block that was at or wrapped around the end-of-tape reversal point (since those tapes are serpentine.) The tape and drive have otherwise worked fine. HTH; pls let me know what you find out, Thanks, Sybase, Inc. / 6475 Christie Ave. / Emeryville, CA / 94608 415-596-3500 WORK:tim@sybase.com {pacbell,pyramid,sun,{uunet,ucbvax}!mtxinu}!sybase!tim PLAY:axolotl!tim@toad.com {sun,uunet}!hoptoad!axolotl!tim
ghg@en.ecn.purdue.edu (George Goble) (06/28/91)
In article <3421@brchh104.bnr.ca> adw@isg.cs.reading.ac.uk (Anthony Worrall) writes: >We have beening doing dumps onto an Exabyte connected to a 4/380 under >SUNOS 4.1.1 rev B using Sony QG-112M tapes. Recently we have started to >get write errors with the error message > > st1: write failed > st1 error: sense key(0x5): illegal request > > >This error message seems to be tape dependent and has occurred on the Exabyte >tape supplied with the drive as well as the Sony tapes. I had the Sun engineer >in and we changed the drive the cables and finally the CPU board which seemed >to cure the problem, but now it is back again. This is probably "cockpit error", not anything wrong with the tape drive. Exabytes (8200) can only write at the following places: 1) starting at the BOT 2) after the end of the last data written on the tape (EOM) 3) at the "front" side of a filemark. If a write is attempted anyplace else (e.g. in the middle of a file) you get an illegal req error. A tar "append" (tar r or u) will cause this also, when an attempt is made to overwrite data near the end of file. Say one has a tape with 3 files on it (dump images?), and only wants to save the first two, and write over the third.. On normal magtape: mt fsf 2 write on it. on Exabyte mt fsf 2 mt bsf 1 (or "mt bsfm 1" if sunos4.0 or later) mt weof 1 (this writes a filemark over itself, but erases area after EOF) write on it This restriction is due to the helical scan heads cannot erase tape. The 8500 has slightly less restrictions, it may be able to start a write at the EOT side of a filemark as well. --ghg