Dell NetWorker 19.9 Administration Guide

Media handling errors

The architecture of device drivers can produce media handling errors. The NetWorker software automatically retries a failed operation such as a mount or read of a volume. The number of times the NetWorker software retries the failed operation depends on the value of the Max Consecutive Errors attribute, which is set in the Advanced tab of the device’s Properties window. The default value is 20. When the device’s Max Consecutive Errors value is reached, the device stops retrying the operation and becomes disabled.

A mount or read operation might fail for several reasons, for example:

• Attempts to mount and read a damaged tape in a library can result in a loop of failed actions: the device might repeatedly try to mount the tape, replace it in the slot, and then retry the action with the same result. In this example, to bring the drive back into use, remove the damaged tape, then reenable the device.
• A drive that always reports a fixed number of failures before correctly mounting and reading a tape, even if the tape is not damaged, can cause a failure loop. In this example, ensure that the Max Consecutive Errors value is higher than the number of times that particular drive fails before working correctly.