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Monitoring Tape Error Rates

It is important to ensure that the number of tape drive errors that occur is reasonable. The CA Auditor Hardware Error Display aids you in this matter. Because tape drives today are designed with certain self‑correcting capabilities, very few permanent errors should occur. Temporary errors, on the other hand, can occur with some frequency, but are usually corrected by the tape drive. When the tape drive cannot read a tape, it automatically backspaces and attempts to read it again. This process can be repeated many times until the tape is read.

Error rates should be monitored and compared to a baseline of acceptable performance. If this is not done, gradually increasing error rates caused by aging or neglected tapes or hardware, can cause system performance to deteriorate. When the problem is finally discovered, great expenditures can be required to replace the defective tapes or repair malfunctioning hardware.