Hi Shane,
it's a typical "me too" situation, isn't it? But to come back on the
technical stuff:
1. since the error indicates a non-cleaned drive we did that several times
manually. Also we checked the counter the 3570 uses for the usage of the
cleaning cartridge and we learned from that that the MP actually cleans
itself from times to times. As a last idea we ordered a new cleaning
cartridge which should be in in the next days, BUT as far as I can see
right now cleaning is not the heart of the problem.
2. Bad 3570 tapes. We checked the numbers published on the Newsgroup
against our tapes - we are not in the range of the "bad ones". So I'd like
to exclude that one.
3.Microcode: maybe that's it. But why does that beast work perfectly for
almost 12 months and then from one minute to the other starts causing us
trouble? Does somebody have more information on what level of microcode is
the recommended one etc.
We have also a lot of SCSI errors in the NT event log and we had some days
back the effect that the 3570 could not pass power-on-self-test after being
powered off and powered on again - perhaps we have a HW probleme here. I'll
try to geht hold of IBM and have them check the HW before we do any other
things on that box.
Mit freundlichem Gruss/Best Regards
Michael Abel
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert - RS/6000 AIX
IBM Certified Specialist - ADSM
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Shane <shanesmith AT WESTPAC.COM DOT AU> on 01.11.98 22:26:21
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc: (bcc: Michael Abel/resnova)
Subject: Re: HELP: errors on 3570
Hi!!!
Yeah Michael, we started that thread 'cos we had a stack of similar errors.
The system gets an error, marks the tape r/o, and then you find out its got
vcr errors. You can move the data off the vcr-damaged tapes, but it takes
time.
There was a bad batch of 3570 tapes late last year... I do have the details
somewhere.. and when I find them I will forward to you. We got an IBM
engineer to come out and he put on the latest microcode for the 3570.
We also got some weird sense code errors, and I put them on this mailing
list to see if anyone knew what they meant, but as yet I have not got any
response.
We are keeping a close eye on the systems to see if reliability has
improved - 'cos we were getting a lot of vcr errors and it was ruining our
backups.
Run manual tape-cleans at least once a week. I think the new microcode on
the 3570 should do this automatically, but I have my doubts.
All in all, I think ADSM is great.. fantastic even... but these 3570 units
and their Magstar tapes leave me wondering at times. We are investigating
other tape media before we commit big-time to a full enterprise ADSM
solution.
Regards
Shane
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