We use the TSM Operational Reporter to report on any tapealert messages( 
MSGNO=8948,8949,8950,8951) and and I/O errors
(MSGNO=1401,8943,8381) and analyse the errors. If it's a tape problem, normally 
we MOVE DATA and let it go ack to scratch. If we get
another error....out it goes! If it's a read error, MOVE DATA to clear it off 
(or as much as it can) restore any data that couldn't
be moved...and out it goes! Actually returned for warrenty replacement.

Now on our 3584 fibre attached library, we seem to see a lot more errors being 
generated from the drive that is also the library
control point. I saw some referenced on this list about this same thing and it 
was suggested that these were not "real" errors, but
would be fixed on the next firmware for the library. We still go through the 
above exercise anyway. Data is too important!!


Bill Boyer
"Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield" - ??

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Jones, Eric J
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 9:31 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: When Good Tapes Go Bad

What I generally do is watch for drive errors and the tapes that cause it.  If 
the same drive is causing errors I assume the drive
is going.
Each time I receive a tape error I document the date and tape, audit the tape, 
if errors exist I move the data off and make it a
scratch tape, otherwise I set the tape back to read/write.  After 3 occurances 
I move the data off and throw tape way.  It seems to
work well for us.

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Bill Rozmiarek
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 9:26 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: When Good Tapes Go Bad

How do you go about determining that a tape is bad and needs to be thrown 
replaced? The way I do it is to keep track of any tapes
that have been set to read-only due to an error (q act msg=1411). When I see 
one, I mark it

read-write and keep track of it. When the same tape gets set to read-only due 
to an error a second time, I do a 'move data' if
there's anything on it and then eject it, delete the volume, and replace it 
with a new tape. I don't know that that tape is really
bad so I could be throwing tapes (and
money) in the garbage unnecessarily.
Is there a way to certify a tape like I can a disk?
How do you determine that a tape needs to be replaced?

-Bill

--
Bill Rozmiarek
http://GatheredTogether.org - Ministries Helping Ministries