My site is running ADSM Version 1 under AIX with 3490E cartridge drives.
I recently became one of the ADSM administrators. I just ran into my
first case of a cartridge volume being put into read-only status because
of an I/O error. As it happens, the volume is empty, so there is no
concern about retrieving data from it. There is a body of folklore
circulating around here to the effect that some I/O errors are spurious,
so I should not discard a tape volume just because it has gotten an
I/O errors. Some past administrators reputedly forced tapes back into
read/write status after I/O errors in some cases, but I have never
been able to find out what criteria they used to decide when this was
appropriate. The other current administrators have what amounts to a
systematic policy of refusing to make a decision; they leave the volumes
in the storage pool, but don't ever try to make them usable by resetting
their error status. Are there any generally recognized, intellectually
defesible criteria for deciding what to do with cartridges that have
had I/O errors?