tapealert · shipping · also Tape Alert

TapeAlert

TapeAlert is a SCSI status-reporting mechanism for tape devices that exposes condition flags through LOG SENSE page 2Eh.

Related Observatory article: TapeAlert on hesela.com

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 [1] [2]. The HPE LTO-7 guide documents clear-on-read log parameters and zeros for unsupported flags [3]. A later zero is not proof that no earlier event occurred. Coordinate readers and retain observations rather than treating flags as cumulative incident counters.

Relations

related

lto, tape-library

Limitations

• Set/clear behavior is implementation-specific; NetBackup 10.x itself reads the log at job boundaries, so additional collectors need an explicit collection policy. [4]
• Status flags do not supply a cartridge failure-rate denominator or establish readability of data that has not been read. [5]

Citations

1. IBM Docs, TS4500: TapeAlert flags supported by LTO tape drives (accessed 2026-10-15)
2. Oracle StorageTek SL150 Modular Tape Library: Log Sense (4Dh), TapeAlert page 2Eh (accessed 2026-10-15)
3. HPE Storage LTO-7 Ultrium Tape Drives Technical Reference Manual, Volume 3: TapeAlert log page 2Eh (accessed 2026-10-15)
4. Veritas NetBackup Backup Planning and Performance Tuning Guide (2024-04-16): How NetBackup TapeAlert works (accessed 2026-10-15)
5. Hesela: TapeAlert observation limits and explicit event-rate arithmetic (accessed 2026-10-15)

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