Clearing a stuck tape in NetWorker

Published 01 Aug 2002 Read time 1 min 11 sec(s) (2822 views). NetWorker

It occasionaly happens to us all. You arrive in the office the next morning to find some type of error during your overnight backup or cloning schedule, and Legato NetWorker leaves a tape stuck in a drive. This tape usually ends up in ready for writing or state. At this point there appears that nothing we do can unmount or free the drive.

You can perform the following procedure to correct this situation without the need to 'bounce' your Legato NetWorker Server:

Open the tape silo and manually eject the tape from the drive in question or use the library front panel to eject the media from the drive to the CAP. Simply hold onto the tape until you get the drive working.
Determine which nsrmmd(1m) process is using the drive, by entering the following command:
```
# fuser <tape-device>
```
For example:
```
# fuser /dev/rmt/2mbn
/dev/rmt/2mbn:  21438
```
The output shows the process id of the nsrmmd(1m) daemon that has control of the drive.
Issue the kill(1m) command to kill the nsrmmd daemon. For example:
```
# kill 21438
```
From the Legato NetWorker GUI (nwadmin) you will notice that the nsrmmd automatically restart after killing the daemon. Once the nsrmmd process has restarted, your drive should be back in service.
Use the nsrjb(1m) command to deposit the manually removed tape back into your library/silo, then perform an inventory on the slot where you placed the tape.