If you dump to a tape using the dump database or dump transaction commands, and specify a block size value that is larger than the maximum block size of a device as determined by Backup Server, the dump or the load may fail on certain tape drives.
An operating system error message appears; for example, on an 8mm tape drive on Hewlett Packard, the error message is:
Backup Server: 4.141.2.22: [2] The 'write' call failed for device 'xxx' with error number 22 (Invalid argument). Refer to your operating system documentation for further details.
Do not specify a block size larger than the one specified in the tape device configuration file in $SYBASE/backup_tape.cfg. The block size for a device is the fifth field of the line in the tape device configuration file.
This error occurs only on tape drives where tape auto config is run; that is, the device models are not hard-coded in Backup Server code.