techrecovery | TechSupport Test - 1 and 2, The Solutions

Well, i said i'll give the answer on Monday but, i think i got an answer from everyone already who wanted to take the test :)

Test1
Problem1: DDS4 tapedrive rips tapes apart. tape is ejected correctly but when you pull it out, you see that the tape is ripped in two pieces. (Cartridge is not damaged. only the tape)
Known Issue. Firmware Problem! The Read/Write head is in a wrong position at the end. firmware update make motor to make 1 more turn so the writehead will go a little lower and the tape can be ejected without hanging and getting ripped apart when customer takes the tape out.
(Noone got that one :)

Problem2: Redhat EL SAMBA-Server with dual Gbit Broadcom NICs (onboard) and 4x78G Raid10 always crashes when getting HEAVY access to disks over Net OK, i admit. Hard one. in 90% of the time, the network-driver "TG3" is the reason. TG3 can cause program failures and even whole system freezes under heavy load. could also be a corrupt Raid but thats VERY rare.
canthlian: nice thoughts. updates of firmeware/driver often fixes such issues
arccoyote: servers normally cant be overclocked :) at least no reasonable sysadmin would try to do so
the_paco: also nice thoughts. but if you use PCI Intel NICs, they use the e1000 driver and so they wont have anything to do with the TG3 issue ;)
theogrin: of course. one single harddrive can slow down the whole bus but that would give timeouts which are mostly shown in /var/log/messages

Problem3: Windows 2003 SBS. Black Screen. Hardware-Diagnostic LEDs show "Suspend to RAM" after about 2h of uptime (1,5h to 2,5h)
When staying in front of system, you see its shown that system is shutting down now before the "suspend to RAM" is shown and monitor is black
Alright... that one was not fair. i admit.
Windows 2003 Small Business Server MUST! be Primary Domain Controller, License Server, and also have a few other roles. Otherwise it will shut down every couple of hours.
Microsoft KB article
I also thought it might be an virus first. well, you always just learn new stuff :)
BTW: 2003 SBS MUST be the ONLY domain-controller in LAN

Problem4: Access to harddrive (Seagate Cheetah 36LP) sporadically not possible. Hardware Diagnostic shows no Errors. HD is 'offline' sometimes. after Reboot of System, HD is available again.
Dont laught! there are known Firmware Issues with a few Seagate Harddrives! update the Harddrives Firmware and it should work again ;)
OK, only in about 20% of the time. but if they are out of warranty, that might help!

Problem5: Server's integrated Motherboard Hardware Log shows 25 Single-Bit Errors on an 1GB ECC-Ram Module during the last Month. Sporadically. not all of them at once.
Alright :) i guess noone knew that an 1GB ECC Ram Module can have up to 56 SBEs per month and it would still be within the 'industry norm'
thats like the TFT that can have up to 300 Pixel-errors and still wont be replaced as long as the pixel-errors are not in one place.
anyhow. youre of course right! i also would swap this module if its a problem with the module and not the mainboard (X-Test two modules should let you find that out)
congrats to: the_s_guy, arccoyote, archatos and theogrin :)

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Test 2
Problem1: LTO2 Tapedrive gives CRC Errors. Cleaning LED is blinking.
after cleaning the LED is OFF again, but once he puts an backup-tape in again and tries to backup, the Cleaning-LED is ON again. Customer cleaned tapedrive 3 times in a row already.
1) Firmware Update (sometimes firmware problems with older drives)
2) clean with an NEW Cleaning tape (there are people who clean since 3 years, Once a month, with the same tape. 160 cleans...*knockknock* HELLO ??? anyone home ?)
3) Try backup with an NEW Backup Tape (old tapes might be bad, or 'dirty' already when beeing in contact with dirty read/write heads. you clean the drive with the cleaning tape and the drive afterwards 'cleans' the backup-tape. that wont work!)
Nice Shot indigo_max :)

Problem2: Tape-Backup with Veritas BackupExec sometimes aborts with Timeouts. Windows Native backup works without Problems.
first of all. CHECK if the windows internal "Removeable storage service" is deactivated. VBE always has problems when the native backup is also active. (solves about 70% of these issues) others possible fixes are firmware, driver, wrong controller, no termination, bend pins (scsi cable) or an corrupt SQL Database from VBE. (reinstall VBE in that case)

Problem3: DDS4 Tapedrive. Customer wants to restore last backup. Tapes are set to WRITE PROTECT so that he wont loose the data. Customer puts tape into drive but drive cant find the tape "No Media loaded"
also not fair: UNKNOWN Firmware issue! Drive wont recognize Write Protected Media. Update firmware and it works again ;)
DDS4 is small but VERY Reliable. Most of the cases i have with DDS4 tapes are Firmware-Related.

Problem4: Voltage-Regulation-Coil beside the CPU burned down (yes. with flames and smoke and everything)
what do you replace and why?
EVERYTHING! Whole System Swap! you cant say if the CPU, the memory, the PSU, mainboard, PCI-Cards, Harddrive etc havnt got an short and these parts might frag your new mainboard too. nothing worse than when you swap mobo, cpu, mem and then the backplane frags your raid-controller again ;)

Problem5: APC PowerChute Business Suite 6 has Problems that Services sporadically stopped or crashed. After reboot of Server, System wont start into normal mode. its possible to start into Safe-Boot-Mode!
Very well done jecook !! :)
The Problem is an expired zertification for APC PowerChute 6. 2003 cant load the application because its not 'safe' any more but HAS to start the application because its an system-service. Good night bootsequence.

Problem6: System Management Software shows: "Fan 7 state: Failed. 0 RPM" All Fans are equal and HotPlug-Able
Here i want an DECISION tree >:) (f.E.: if "a" then "b" else: if "c" then "d" else: if .....)

1) check if fan is TURNING. no matter if turning or not, x-test with another Fan in this server (hot plug able) and check if the problem goes with the Fan or sticks on that slot. then either swap Fan or Motherboard.
well done jecook and the_paco :)

All of you who tried to solve the issues went on it with quite nice attempts :) (beside the TapeDrive stuff)
At my place they would Rip everyone's head off who just swaps an TapeDrive without DETAILED troubleshoot. ok, one tapedrive costs between 500 and 5000 Dollar. i also wouldnt want that they throw my money out of the window like that ;)
but the rest was really good! nice to see there are lot of really skilled techs here!