I’ve observed the following issue on Media Agents on Linux with MTWEOFI support turned on in omnirc (to optimize performance) when running recent versions of Data Protector such as A.09.09_116.
While the first write operation to a blank or expired media will succeed an append operation to a tape by the Linux Media Agent will generate the following error. The media in question will be marked as poor.
[Major] From: BMA@linux.syncer.de "MSL6480_D1" Time: 18.11.2017 01:56:54 [90:183] Cannot backspace block. (Details unknown.) [Major] From: BMA@linux.syncer.de "MSL6480_D1" Time: 18.11.2017 01:56:54 [90:65] /dev/tape/by-id/scsi-350014380032e2efc-nst Cannot append to medium (Details unknown.)
An intermediate fix has been made available by Micro Focus support in QCCR2A77211_HF1 which includes an hot fix for the Linux BMA. This fix also requires to specify the following options while OB2EODMETHOD=1 was previously not required.
# Enable MTWEOFI support on Linux Media Agent / Performance
OB2FORCESCSI=WFM
OB2IMMEDFM=1
OB2EODMETHOD=1
Updated Information for Data Protector 10.x
Unfortunately more recent Data Protector versions (A.10.00 to A.10.20) re-introduced the problem. A fix has been confirmed as working in the meantime. If you need this functionality please request hot fix QCCR2A81967_HF3 from software support.