Backup to Tape Job to the HPE LTO tape drives fails with "Tape error: '1117'" after upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 4b

Challenge

Backup (and other operations) to HPE LTO tape drives may constantly fail after installation of Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 4b (9.5.4.2866).

Veeam fails to connect to the tape drive and returns the following errors:
 

[18.07.2019 15:49:24] <01> Warning TapeDrive alert: The tape drive has a problem with the application client interface
...
[18.07.2019 15:49:58] <01> Error Tape error: '1117' (The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error) (Veeam.Backup.Common.CCppComponentException)
[18.07.2019 15:49:58] <01> Error in c++: TapeHandle failed to get tape drive parameters.
[18.07.2019 15:49:58] <01> Error in c++: Tape initialization FAILED.

However, the tape drive is recognized correctly in the device manager and no hardware related errors are reported in the Windows System log.

Cause

When Veeam is configuring the hardware encryption, it sends an incorrect command to the tape drive.
This brings the tape drive into the faulty state.

Solution

To solve the issue, apply the hotfix:

1. Download the hotfix. It contains the agents both for x64 and x86 architectures.
2. Check the current version of Veeam Backup & Replication. It must be 9.5.4.2866.
3. Make sure that no jobs are running, close the console, and stop all Veeam services.
4. Right-click on the installation file and click "Run as administrator"
5. Go through the wizard to install private fix.
6. Relaunch Veeam Backup Console and let Veeam automatically update hosts added to the Veeam server.
7. Disconnect the tape drive from the power for a couple of minutes.

IMPORTANT: Mere reboot of the tape server does not solve the issue.

More Information

[[DOWNLOAD|DOWNLOAD PRIVATE FIX|https://www.veeam.com/download_add_packs/vmware-esx-backup/kb2983/]]
MD5 for kb2983.zip: 567db99e79fb6bd95251deb769d90238
SHA-1 for kb2983.zip: 0c8ad6b3c0841402c8da1e05e1acbb7e0bfcadf8