Hi, we're having issues with our HP G3 tape library. First of all we notice that the tape library and drive sometimes appears twice after a rescan (once the real library and drive, once as standalone). The standalones can be removed by removing them from all the tables in the database but they re-appear after some time (and some rescans). This also happens when I use the DPMLA.xml file for manually remapping the library and drive.

A few times per day I can see that the library is stopping and it gives error "Stand Alone Drive Tape Library Hewlett Packard LTO Ultrium-4 drive is not ready. (ID 25014)" After that no backups succeed until we manually rescan the library.

After some troubleshooting and playing with drivers, manually remapping, scsi registry settings and all we could think of I found out that this actually happens because of the DPMLA service that stops and restarts at that moment. In the LAAgent error log I see the following at that moment (I don't know if it's during a tape backup or just between two tape backups):

21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:18.293    05    genericagent.cpp(266)    [000000000029AE50]        NORMAL    Agent Can Shutdown if there is only default wokitem active[1]
21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:18.293    03    workitem.cpp(391)            NORMAL    Timing out WI [00000000008C6A30], WI GUID = {B71B4544-7067-4A30-B5FB-BA320B10D82A}, ..last DM activity happened 354236484msec back, WI Idle Timeout = 390000msec
21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:18.293    22    genericthreadpool.cpp(684)    [00000000008E7CF0]        NORMAL    CGenericThreadPool: Waiting for threads to exit
21A8    12BC    05/19    15:13:19.715    03    service.cpp(147)    [000000000017F660]        ACTIVITY    CService::ServiceHandlerExInternal
21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:20.309    22    genericthreadpool.cpp(684)    [0000000000827FD0]        NORMAL    CGenericThreadPool: Waiting for threads to exit
21A8    10E8    05/19    15:13:22.324    03    timer.cpp(513)    [000000000089CB68]        ACTIVITY    Shutting down timer thread.
21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:22.324    03    service.cpp(81)            ACTIVITY    CService::StopThisService
21A8    1B4C    05/19    15:13:22.324    03    service.cpp(281)    [000000000017F660]        ACTIVITY    CService::StopService()

So it appears DPM is shutting down the service itself because some timer has expired. Does anyone know how this works or how I can prevent this? Also I'm trying to figure out what Work item with GUID B71B4544-7067-4A30-B5FB-BA320B10D82A is and if this has anything to do with it.

Hi,

i think you installed a wrong Driver.

DPMLA will stop, thats not a bug, its a Feature :-)

stop DPMLA and deactivate is, cleanup all your Drivers, mostely the Vendors provide a uninstall.exe.

reboot your server

check in Device Manager, that your Library is an unknown device, after that install the correct Driver and the correct way.

Install_nonexclusive.exe - install the Driver with nonexclusive, Vendor should provide this

reboot your DPM

activate your DPMLA Service, start the console and try to rescan your library

Hi Michael, I already tried removing devices and re-installing drivers of tape library, drive and scsi card, didn't fix the issue. The exclusive-nonexclusive doesn't exist for HP libraries I think, probably something for IBM libraries. Is there any way to control when DPMLA stops/restarts? Cause it stops during (or just between two) tape backups. If I could it let it stop when nothing is happening on the library maybe I could prevent the issue.

DPMLA is not required to be running during tape backup. It is used for library robotic arm operations, inventory, etc.; not for writing or reading data from tape.

You should focus your investigation for your problems elsewhere.

Thanks.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Ok but then it's strange that the error comes up the second that the service stops. And in the logs there are no errors before that, only right after the service restarted. Any other suggestions what to look at then?

Kevin, Did you ever get a resolution to this? I have an identical issue which has caused me to replace the HP tape library and all associated hardware, reload drivers etc....but to no avail the problem is still occurring

Hi Pete, unfortunately not. I replaced the DPM server with a new 2012r2 server, installed DPM from scratch, everything was running ok for about three weeks and then the exact same problems came back again. I already tried many different approaches but can't seem to fix this. If you have any other suggestions please let me know :)

Hi Kevin, Ok thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I have no good suggestions since I have also been unable to resolve the issue. 

I actually had two separate external tape devices connected to the DPM server. One was a HP autoloader with an LTO drive and the other a HP LTO stand-alone tape drive. The stand-alone drive is not used by DPM....it is used by a different backup solution (Veeam) - the stand alone is visible in DPM but I have always had it as a disabled device. I have another DPM server in a separate data center with the same setup that doesn't have the issue. The only difference is that the second DPM server DOESN'T have a second stand-alone tape drive connected. So I thought for a while that the stand-alone drive may have been the cause of this issue. I removed it completely....but the problem has not gone away.

Once the tape drive in the autoloader disappears a manual rescan is required and it will reappear and I can then use it again. It always disappears at time when it is in heavy use. We only perform tape backup tasks over the weekends and this is always when the drive disappears, but it does not always disappear at the same time nor during the same job.   

I am still working to resolve this and I will be probably be raising a tech support case with MS shortly. So if I get an answer I will post back here.