Tape Library - slow media format always fails

[Firebat]

Hi folks!

I've got a tape library/changer with one LTO9 drive attached via SAS to a Broadcom/Avago/LSI 9500-8e HBA. I'm not able to slow format any of the tapes in this library.

proxmox-tape format --drive ibm-lto9 --fast 0

alwas throws an error:

TASK ERROR: erase failed - scsi command failed: transport error
Error: task failed (status erase failed - scsi command failed: transport error)

After that, the drive sits at "Calibrating" for about 20 Minutes and that's it.



Fast formatting works as expected. I've been able to add one Tape to the inventory but havn't tried to actually write data to it. I'm sure the hardware itself is working fine, the server and library have been used before with a different backup solution just fine. I also found some forum and bug tracker posts about the same error but never found the solution.

 

[kawano-y]

I understand you've already checked related forum threads and bug reports, but could you confirm whether Media Optimization has been completed for the LTO-9 tapes?

 

[Firebat]

I would say that the Initialization is complete. I tried to write some data to the tape. That works, even if it is not as fast as expected, between 80 MB/s and 160 MB/s. But unfortunately I don't have any values for comparison. The underlying datastore is HDD only, so maybe that's normal.

Right now, I'm not sure if I should investigate further or just use it as it is.