Very good. I have the same case and nobody from IBM could tell me how to do
this category change. We are running the 3494 from OS/390 and I did not find
any SMS command to do that.

Any idea?

Regards,

Rene Lambelet
Nestec SA - 55, Av. Nestle - CH-1800 Vevey
Tel: ++41'21'924'35'43 / Fax: ++41'21'924'45'89
E-Mail: rene.lambelet AT nestle DOT com



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Sims [SMTP:rbs AT BU DOT EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 1999 3:14 PM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      Re: IBM 3494 and problems with defect cartridges
>
> In response to Othmar's attached question regarding how to easily remove a
> tape from the 3494's inventory:
>
> Volume, delete from Library Manager     A destroyed tape which the 3494
> spits
>  database                               out will remain in the library's
>                                         database indefinitely, with a
> category
>                                         code x'FFFA'.  To get rid of that
>                                         useless entry, use the FFFB
>                                         (Purge Volume) category code, as
> in:
>                                         'mtlib -l /dev/lmcp0 -vC -V
> VolName
>                                                 -t FFFB'
>
> The response that Othmar got from IBM was certainly disappointing.  They
> should be the subject matter experts, and as such should have been able to
> advise how to easily do this by simply changing the volume's category
> code.
>
>     Richard Sims, Boston University OIT
>
> =================== in response to:
> We are running ADSM V3 with an IBM 3494 with IBM 3590 tape drives attached
> to it. We are quite satisfied with that configuration but have some
> handling
> problems: After a tape drive "eating" a tape the tape was removed by IBM
> service and put to trash. Some time later I noticed that the tape was
> still
> held in the inventory of the 3494. Doing an inventory update lead to the
> status quo (output of the mtlib command):
>
> state................Volume present in Library, but Inaccessible
>                      Volume is Misplaced
>                      Volume was Manually Ejected
> class................10
> volser...............J70212
> category.............FFFA
> subsystem affinity...07 08 05 06 03 04 01 02
>                      00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>                      00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>                      00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>
> First I tried to change the category using the mtlib command, but this
> does
> not work:
>
> Change Category  operation Failed, ERPA code - 6B,  Library VOLSER
> Misplaced.
>
> I talked to the IBM folks and they told me to do a complete reinventory of
> the
> library (I did this only once in my ADSM career: the library lost all
> statistical information on the tapes, especially the use counts for the
> cleaning cartridges). Next idea of the IBM support was to insert a dummy
> cartridge with the same label and eject it afterwards to get rid of the
> inventory reference. I would like to do that but I don't have the barcode
> label anymore.
>
> Has anyone an utility to print barcode (Tri-Optic) for 3590 tapes on a
> laser
> printer?  Or better: Has anyone another idea to handle the above problem?
>
> By the way: the library cells with volumes of category FFFA are get reused
> by
> the the library manager, that means that two volumes point to the same
> cell
> and that's what I worry about.
>
> Thanks for any suggestion!
>
> Othmar