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wompa

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Parity Error on scsi controller

Currently have:  Compaq ML50 Proliant Server w/pIII xenon processor
                 windows 2000 server & latest service packs
                 HP Sure Store Dat40 External scsi tape drive
                 Compaq 64-bit Ultra2 scsi controller /p
                 Backup Exec Ver. 8.60 server edition

My problem is in my event log I am receiving a tremendous amount of errors "A parity error was detected on \device\scsi\cpq32fs22" and I am assuming that is related to the backup device.  I have scheduled jobs of course and they run during the night.  It seems like certain days everything will work fine, then all of a sudden the tape drive might not read the tape or eject it properly and the job will fail, and when those problems happen of course the event log shows errors almost every minute.  Now I have tried unplugging the cord, inspecting the pins on the cable and device and even replaced the cord, and also had a spare scsi controller card that i replaced and any of which seemed to fix the problem for a day or so then the log file resumes compiling the errors.  I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling veritas & hp drivers for the tape drive but nothing has yet to work.  Right now it is backing up properly but in one given day i receive 200 some parity errors and more than likely it will start failing again.  I have also purchased an additional scsi hard drive that isn't working off the tape drive's controller card and have the backup jobs also target it to for additional media.  So basically what i'm asking is if i'm missing something, or if some other hardware could possibly be malfuncioning?  Also the tape drive is less than 1 year old and my server is going on its 4th year.
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oldgreyguy

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Resource.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=63891&prodTypeId=12169

I wonder if you have some goobered up tapes. could the heads be dirty?..the above link has some diagnostic stuff on it
which scsi standard ist the controller, the tape drive and other parts on the scsi channel in question. also needed: type & rev. of controller and backup drive and other devices connected to the host adapter. I have seen this issues with improper termination. If for example on a 16(32) bit bus only terminated 8(16) bits are terminated. also mention where the scsi bus in question is terminated and how (mechanical) and electrical (active/passive).
sorry for my -not native - english.
best regards,
erwin
and sorry i forgot talk about the data cables which you use pls. are both devices connected to the same power outlet (PC and Streamer)?
data transfer errors may be from stray in surge or voltage peaks or other things (maybe at the time oft the error the cleaning lady disconnects the streamer for her vacuuming device or some powerfull machines switch on like a big air conditioning thing)
again sorry for my english. i am doing training here.
best regards,
erwin
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ASKER

okay, in regards to both commments i'll try and explain as much as i can.   The first comment about the tapes brought up a new possibility.  We've had these tapes now for going on 4 years..and there is 1 for every day, and they get changed accordingly.  I will check now to see if certain days when a particular tape is in the drive and being use the errors are generated.  For example the last time they came up was at 5:39AM and continuted about every minute till 8:30AM on 4-8-03.  Last night and this morning nothing showed up and everything ran perfectly. What is puzzeling is the backup jobs run at 7:00 pm and 10:00 PM and take maybe at the most 30min to run.  So it is weird that it throws those errors at that time of day.  I will try running a tape cleaner and try that option.
 Erwinw here is what i can tell you, I don't quite follow exactly what you said but i can describe how everything is connected from what i know about hardware.  The tape drive is run from a compaq 64-bit ultra2 scsi card that is attached to pci bus 5.  on the hardware manager it shows up twice for some reason....(PCI bus 4, device 4, function 0) and (PCI bus 5, device 4 function 1) this card only controls the tape drive, there are additional built in controllers for the RAID, and the add on scsi hard drive that i put in to back up to ( which hooks directly into the mother board).  Now that scsi controller card that runs the tape drive has a port built on the back like any pci card, but it also has a 68 pin internal cable that attaches to the side and then attaches to a very small and narrow external scsi type port (don't know what its name is).  then I have an actual HP cable that connects to that external port and matches up with the tape drive which uses a much larger connection (larger and more pins).  There are two ports on that tape drive and the bottom one has like a jumper or a terminator on it.  Other then that i don't really know what else to describe as far as the setting go on the card if there are any little jumpers or terminiators.  I know the tape drive has a few settings, but i have never touched any of them.  The power supply is all run from an APC 1400 UPS battery backup.  I have routinely cleaned out the dust from the server about every 4 months or so too.
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erwinw

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Yeah, the server is in a protected environment, no online activities at all.  Basically it is used for file and print sharing for the bank. I pulled the tape controller card and figured out that the controller card has 2 channels, thus the two configurations for the same card.  Yet again last night there were no errors, everything worked perfectly and is making me think it could be something with the power supply since i have had to replace one of the batteries about a year back. As the previous person said, could it possibly be that a certain tape is bad forcing these errors?  but then the errors should be occuring when the job is active not 5 hours later i suppose.  I'll do more inspection and check out the tape drive to see what terminiations need to be done.  As a precaution i added another hard drive that does daily, weekly and monthly backups just to have more redundancy.
Dear all
I have the same problem and get this error :"An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\DR1 during a paging operation.
A parity error was detected on \Device\Scsi\adpu160m2. "
The event log have a lot of messages like this .
The server type is :
GS-SR222 DP/2U Rackmount Server
Dual Intel Xeon processors with 512kb L2 chache
Adaptec 7899W Dual Ultra 160 SCSI channels
operating system Win2k Advanced server



Thanks