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Ken-doh

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The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Scsi\symmpi1 - backups failing - help please

I have been strugling with this for about 2 months - any help will be appreciated

Server 2003 HP DL360 G5

our backups have started failing - some times they work some times they dont often it gets 10 minutes in and fails. but mostly backups are not working we get the following error. after reading lots of information. I have the following drivers installed

Tape drive - symantec driver 5.1 SDLT 600
Scsi - Microsoft LSI logic ultra320 5.2.379

it is an additional HP scsi card connected to an external tape drive

I have tried the following - with no success
updated the LSI driver - still errord
changed the driver to a quantum one - still errors
checked all the cables and its all connected ok
the terminator is attached.


Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      symmpi
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      11
Date:            07/01/2009
Time:            12:47:40
User:            N/A
Computer:      CD-DC1
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Scsi\symmpi1.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 10 00 01 00 66 00   ......f.
0008: 00 00 00 00 0b 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 00 00 0a 11 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 06 00 00 00   ........




Avatar of WB-Internal
WB-Internal
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Have you attempted updating the firmware and drivers for the card? (i see drivers noted)
How about the tape drive? (i see drivers noted)

Are you going to a library or single tape device or what? Do you think you're over working it?
What manufacturer/brand/model?

Did you search for your error on google or this site? I see a lot of hits.
maybe this will help:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21752849/The-device-Device-Scsi-symmpi1-did-not-respond-within-the-timeout-period.html

Your drive may not be returning the correct state, does it do any of the backup task? if not it may not be loading/unloading/reporting correctly so when the job is requested the device is reporting not ready.


you mentioned Quantum so have you run Quantum testing software against the unit?
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Ken-doh

ASKER

hi - thanks for the speedy reply

I have played around with drivers and put different versions and rolled back. from what I have read using the symmpi.sys driver seems the corect thing to do with symantec and tape backups.

the backups do start - one ran for 44 minutes - but then it fails with the error message mentioned above.

I have been trying to find a newer version of symmpi.sys - the version I have is 5.2.3790 1/10/2002 !!!
but all attempts to find this online have failed so far !!!

this is a single tape backup device - SDLT 600

I have run the quantum tests - the heath check said everything is 100% perfect. yet it still fails
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WB-Internal
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I would assume that only upgrades and patches to your symantec software will give you new drivers.
I could be wrong, i don't use em.
what symantec product?
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

hi

I am just running another backup and its made it up to 1 hour - seems almost random when it will fail or not.

 hmmm... I will try a cleaning tape when this run fails.

can you recommend a scsi tester ?

there is just the tape drive connected to the scsi card. HP internal raid is doing the drives.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

symantec backup exec 11d - all updates applied and latest drivers.

I am convinced its something to do with the tape drive and/or the scsi controller. what is strange is that this worked with no issues for about a year. then over the last few months it has become worse
- can you recommend a scsi tester ?
i recommend what the chipset/card manufacturer reccomends, if it is a re-branded card or is embedded then i suggest whatever the system/card manufacturer reccomends.

You'll need to poke around their support areas.

HP or LSI should have a testing suite, it may also be built into the card ad accessible via reboot / intialization of the card IE: for LSI Menu hit CTRL + M etc...


Do you not have an extra scsi host controller laying around?
well nothing's strange really, when something breaks it breaks and it always worked well before it broke
i'd try a new card myself.

Also you could verify your system / host card / tape drive are verified compatible with your software but to be honest that is prob a waste of time, you have standard hardware.

Maybe swapping PCI slots might help.

it sounds like you can (although it is random) repeat this error during the day.
If this is the case repeatedly run those Quantum tests and see what it picks up when it finally fails.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

hi

sorry for the delay - everything has been verified i ran 4 backup tests and all passed 100% - I have stopped all my HP agents as this is something that was advised on the symantec website

I have rebooted and now my error logs are full of

Event Type:      Error
Event Source:      symmpi
Event Category:      None
Event ID:      11
Date:            14/01/2009
Time:            10:38:43
User:            N/A
Computer:      CD-DC1
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Scsi\symmpi1.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 10 00 01 00 66 00   ......f.
0008: 00 00 00 00 0b 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 15 00 02 05 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00   ........


any ideas ?
so did you try a new card?
did you move it to a different PCI slot?

What is the manufacturer/model of the card?
Since you have an unreliable backup, do you have enough disk capacity to do disk based?
i hope so.

if so run that for a bit and see if any failures occur, i realize it is crying about the drivers/controller but that may be the effect. You're gonna need another card to verify if the current controller is bad or not so while you're waiting for that to be delivered see if any disk based backups fail.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

I am currently in contact with HP to replace the card. althought they do not believe this is the problem.

card is
HP SC11Xe Host Bus Adapter - storage controller - Ultra320 SCSI - PCI Express x4
Part code 412911-B21

we dont have the capacity to do disk based. additionally we need the data stored off site - we dont have the upstream bandwidth to do online backups overnight.
just saying for a functioning solution and to test for some other cause that is creating an error not associated with the card and due to some fluke you're getting a card error when that is not the problem.
aka run backups without the supposed errored card and see what happens.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

unfortunatly - that card provides the only scsi vhdci on the server - so no card - no tape drive. but its a good thought.
yeah i was cancelling out the drive too as it may be a source of the error.
I meant take out everything from the card and beyond out of the equation and see what happens.
Not for a true backup/solution, but to verify the system / software /agents / whatever is actually fucntuioning properly / consistantly... at least then you have a pretty good verfification that it is either the card or tape drive or thier drivers.

Either way you don't have the disk space so no bigge.
PS you could have a card for $10-$25 on eBay and have in or around 5 days for testing purposes.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

I have just tried a new driver. but I get the following error now
Source Lsi_scsi
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\RaidPort1.

I am going to explain this to HP and see what they say - lets hope I get a new card to try.

I reset the scsi cable to make sure that was ok. same issues :(
sounds like you got a bad card.
you still didn't try a different pci slot for kicks though?
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

its a HP DL360 G5 - it only has room for one :) (i think)
you think? you don't open and inspect your servers and maybe take them completely apart to become familiar with them?

the specs say 2 expansion slots, whatever that means (seems a bit general) but it could be two PCI expansions slots on a riser, check it out.

Ahh good ol eBay had the info:
Expansion Slots:
Full-length, full-height:
  1x PCI-Express x8
Half-height, half-length:
  1x PCI-Express x8


Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

right - HP didnt call back.
meanwhile I have installed a Quantum driver instead of the recomended symantec one. I am now running  a test backup
bummer on the no call back.
good luck on the backup, how many are you going to run before you feel the error is gone for good?

I looked at that card, i don't think it is sized right for your secondary slot, however it is an odd shaped card so it might work, just check clearance between it and board components, i thnk there's a decent sized heatsink under the PCI cards (rear middle of chassis)
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

okay

the backups have run 3 times now and have worked. the problem seems to have been fixed by switching to Quantum drivers from the recommended symantec drivers.

thanks for all your help - I am going to award points now :)
jujst watch out for issues, see why they make thier own drivers ... see what requires them and make sure you're covered.
hope it continues to work, G/L
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

Typical

it failed again last nite.

DOH !

Backup- \\cd-web-svr.foo.co.uk\C:
Storage device "QUANTUM 1" reported an error on a request to write data to media.
Error reported:
The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.
V-79-57344-34029 - A hardware error occurred.
so now HP will replace it hopefully.
hi ive been following your thread, ive been encountering the same issue as you, and have tried similiar techniques, I wanted to see if your replacement controller ever arrived and if you have had a chance to swap it out? I have almost the exact same hardware as you, except mine is a 380 G5 but same scsi controller (x2)  I think my issue will be resolved by replacing the controller.  I have tested three devices, two HP ultrium 960, and one Quantum Superloader 3, and all three devices fail restore jobs on one controller but are all able to backup from that same one with no issues, while all three devices are able to restore from a second controller but backups are kind of off and on...    I get "The device, \Device\Scsi\symmpi2, did not respond within the timeout period" errors and have also seen the raid one mentioned above as well.  Not sure how raid comes into play though...
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

hey

our backups have run all of last week - were using the default MS sysmapi drivers for the scsi and the latest quantum drivers - not using the symantec drivers at all.

I will wait until the server gets rebooted before I consider it all resolved but that combination of drivers seems to do the trick - we didnt get anything replaced from HP. they did advise about a firmware update for the scsi card - but as I didnt apply that - they wouldnt replace the hardware.

first time I have been let down by HP support - guess they are cutting costs...

I shut it all down - reset all the cables powered on tape drive - then server after tape drive had booted.

its very strange - and I dont feel what I have done resolved the issue - I think it may fail again. but for now its running. sorry cant be more help. - I ran the dlt sage xtalk stuff many times and never got an error
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

UPDATE - the backups failed again. since then I did a firmware update of our tape drive with a FUP tape.

since then our backups have been working again

I hope that this may help in the future with any other problems
Anyone got an answer? I've got similar HP hardware and software with same errors. I've had our Autoloader replaced, re-installed Symantec and it still says the drive is offline, tried reseating the SAS controller card but our server has only one slot. I'm leaning towards a faulty card.
Avatar of Ken-doh

ASKER

Hi

i upgraded to backup exec 12.5 and suddenly everything started working.

it was an expensive fix - but its not failed since - touch wood :)
Are your backups still working? Did you ever replace your controller?  

I'm on 12.0 and having very similar issues.  I fear it's the card but wish not to purchase a new one without being absolutely sure.  I'm on maintainence so i could get 12.5 if that might solve my problem.  

Just wonder the update since it's been a couple weeks.
I have the same issue. Replaced the LSI  320i scsi card, installed server 2008, upgraded the Backup Exec to 2010. I was getting this error prior to all the upgrades and replacements and thought it might be the card or disk space which I rectified during the upgrade. I have also run the diagnostics on the Quantum Superstore LTO3 drive.