{
  "slug": "tapealert",
  "term": "TapeAlert",
  "aliases": [
    "Tape Alert"
  ],
  "definition": "TapeAlert is a SCSI status-reporting mechanism for tape devices that exposes condition flags through LOG SENSE page 2Eh.",
  "note": "Flag numbers must be interpreted for the target device class: IBM LTO drive flag 4 identifies a media condition, whereas Oracle SL150 library flag 4 identifies a hardware fault [ibmlto] [oracle]. The HPE LTO-7 guide documents clear-on-read log parameters and zeros for unsupported flags [hpehost]. A later zero is not proof that no earlier event occurred. Coordinate readers and retain observations rather than treating flags as cumulative incident counters.",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "Set/clear behavior is implementation-specific; NetBackup 10.x itself reads the log at job boundaries, so additional collectors need an explicit collection policy.",
      "citationIds": [
        "netbackup"
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Status flags do not supply a cartridge failure-rate denominator or establish readability of data that has not been read.",
      "citationIds": [
        "analysis"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "lto",
    "tape-library"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "ibmlto",
      "title": "IBM Docs, TS4500: TapeAlert flags supported by LTO tape drives",
      "url": "https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ts4500-tape-library?topic=flags-tapealert-supported-by-lto-tape-drives",
      "accessed": "2026-10-15"
    },
    {
      "id": "oracle",
      "title": "Oracle StorageTek SL150 Modular Tape Library: Log Sense (4Dh), TapeAlert page 2Eh",
      "url": "https://docs.oracle.com/en/storage/tape-storage/storagetek-sl150-modular-tape-library/slorm/log-sense-4dh.html",
      "accessed": "2026-10-15"
    },
    {
      "id": "hpehost",
      "title": "HPE Storage LTO-7 Ultrium Tape Drives Technical Reference Manual, Volume 3: TapeAlert log page 2Eh",
      "url": "https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sd00006909en_us&docLocale=en_US&page=GUID-D7147C7F-2016-0901-0922-0000000005A5.html",
      "accessed": "2026-10-15"
    },
    {
      "id": "netbackup",
      "title": "Veritas NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide (2024-04-16): How NetBackup TapeAlert works",
      "url": "https://origin-www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/21414900-146141073-0/v19526982-146141073",
      "accessed": "2026-10-15"
    },
    {
      "id": "analysis",
      "title": "Hesela: TapeAlert observation limits and explicit event-rate arithmetic",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/tape-tapealert-failure-points/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-15"
    }
  ],
  "updated": "2026-10-15"
}