I just checked for that error on the 32 drives I upgraded over the
last 3 weeks and am not finding any. It looks like most of our drives are at
a '6A9' level of microcode:

root:>#lscfg -vl rmt0
  DEVICE            LOCATION          DESCRIPTION

  rmt0              00-01-01-0,0      IBM 3590 Tape Drive and Medium
                                      Changer

        Manufacturer................IBM
        Machine Type and Model......03590E1A
        Serial Number...............00000002XXXX
        Device Specific.(FW)........C6A9
        Loadable Microcode Level....A0B00E26

But our CE has installed even a later level on about a third of our drives,
and they are not logging any ANR8820 errors:

  DEVICE            LOCATION          DESCRIPTION

  rmt0              00-04-01-0,0      IBM 3590 Tape Drive and Medium
                                      Changer

        Manufacturer................IBM
        Machine Type and Model......03590E1A
        Serial Number...............00000002XXXX
        Device Specific.(FW)........C6A9
        Loadable Microcode Level....A0B00E26



Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James SPORER [mailto:james.sporer AT CCMAIL.ADP.WISC DOT EDU]
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 1999 9:52 AM
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: 3590B1A -> 3590E1A
>
>
>      We just installed two new 3590e drives and are also getting the
>      anr8820w messages.  Does anyone know what the proper
> microcode level
>      is?
>      Jim Sporer
>      University of Wisconsin
>
>
>
> ______________________________ Reply Separator
> _________________________________
> Subject: 3590B1A -> 3590E1A
> Author:  "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>  at IPNET
> Date:    9/12/99 6:05 PM
>
>
> Anyone else done the drive-upgrade/seen similar behavior?
>
> After upgrading our 4 3590's, the server issues a
>
> ANR8820W Repairing VCR data .....
>
> each time an old 3590-tape is mounted for reading.
>
> The data on the tape is read OK, but slow, since the VCR-data
> seems to be
> gone..
>
> I have a feeling this has to do with the microcode of the drives.
>
> Our drives now has microcode A0B00E26, which our CE told me was the
> latest one.
>
> The 3.1.2.40-README say I must have D01C_502, and a third level was
> mentioned in a posting here a few weeks ago.
>
> Some time in the past, the drive-microcodes were available at
> the ftp-site
> (index.storsys.ibm.com) under the 3590-directory.
> Now there is a pointer to service2.boulder.ibm.com there, but
> I couln't
> find anyhing here either...
>
> Does anyone know which microcode is needed/is the latest, and if it's
> available for downloading somewhere?
> Or if there is a bug somwhere else that causes the ANR8820W
> when reading
> old 128-track-tapes?
>
> My server is 3.1.2.40 (AIX 4.2.0)
> Atape is 4.4.0.0
> atldd is 4.0.1.0
>
>
>                  Tom.
>