The SONY AIT drive has an internal weight scale. It has a fixed weight value (
that which is measured at sea level) burned in ROM. If there is even a 0.001%
discrepency with the fixed weight, the drive will bitch. at 2000 feet, its
weight is sure to drop outside acceptable parameters.
Why have this absurd limitation? I'm not sure. Return the drive and get the
AIT max. This drive is known to work in 0 gravity and has become the defacto
tape unit device on all NASA space missions.
John Brownlee wrote:
> Hello all, long time listener, first time caller.
>
> I have a real doozie on my hands here. I've been administrating
> *NIX machines of various flavors for years, and this is a first for me.
>
> After taking the plunge and buying a pair of Sony SDX-300 tape
> mechanisms, I have stumbled into an absolutely befuddling behavior. Two
> identical machines (same NCR 53c810 SCSI card, same 2.0.36 kernel, same
> CPU, same brand of cables etc.) in different locales: one sits in an
> office in Tucson AZ, and the other sits up at 8500' on Mt. Bigelow.
> The one downtown works great all the time, no trouble.
> The one at altitude whines constantly, and cannot be trusted. One
> time, it writes 15 Gb of data and reads it back no trouble, and the next
> day it coughs and complains on the very same tape:
>
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current error
> st09:00: sns = f0
> 3
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: ASC= c ASCQ= 0
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: Raw sense data:0xf0 0x00 0x03 0x00 0x00
> 0x00 0x05 0x14 0x00
> 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0c 0x00 0x00 0x00
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current error
> st09:00: sns = f0
> 3
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: ASC= c ASCQ= 0
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: Raw sense data:0xf0 0x00 0x03 0x00 0x00
> 0x00 0x01 0x14 0x00
> 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x0c 0x00 0x00 0x00
> Dec 16 14:59:24 bigspcz kernel: st0: Error on write filemark.
> Dec 16 14:59:36 bigspcz kernel: st0: Error with sense data: extra data not
> valid Current err
> or st09:00: sns = 70 3
>
> It repeats this about 3 times and quits. The st device driver and
> SCSI support are built in, not modularized. I shutdown the machine, take
> it downtown to 2000 feet altitude, and it purrs like a kitten. Tapes which
> previously gave read or write errors first time from the wrapper work
> great.
> The machines are running on UPS's with line filters, so the power
> is good. The -BEST- part about this is that when I switch the one from
> downtown to the mountain and vice-versa, then the machine which previously
> worked for dozens of cycles gives the same error. Swapping one drive
> mechanism, different media, one SCSI card for another, etc. All the same
> error. Only thing I notice is that the drive seems to run hot, i.e. when I
> remove a tape from it is it uncomfortable to touch. I may just put a
> temperature probe on the tape after a few hours in there and measure it.
> According th Sony, the drive should work at 10,000', which we're a far cry
> from. Humidity is maybe 35%, room temperature is about 70F at the mountain
> site.
> Has anyone seen anything like this? Is anyone using these drives
> with Linux at altitudes like this sucessfully? Am I finally losing my
> last shred of sanity?
>
> Thanks for any experience/advice,
>
>
> John
>
> John Brownlee
> Lunar and Planetary Lab
> University of Arizona
> jonnie @ lpl . arizona . edu
