Hi.

We just recently had micrcode upgraded on our 3590B's and have noticed a few
things. First, the code on the drive now seems to spit back errors to adsm
when it sees a tape with media errors. This is all fine and dandy but
evertime it does this (recognize a bad tape, then mark it read-only) it
seems ADSM loses its mind and puts the vol in the "IN USE" state. This
happens to be a known issue with IBM. They recomend recycling the server and
have not as of yet made a fix for it. We have over 700 volumes in our
library and more and more tapes are being marked bad. Quite frankly Iam
disguted with having to bring down all our apps and have operations screech
to halt just becasue of this *retarded* situation. To us this is a VERY big
problem. Iam just curious to know how many other ppl have come accross this.
Is it just us??


Ernie Lim
Sr. UNIX Consultant
Highway 407 ETR
http://www.407etr.com

Here is the APAR in all its glory.


APAR NUMBER: IY02438           RESOLVED AS: PROGRAM ERROR

ABSTRACT:
IY02438: WHEN AN ERROR IS DETECTED ON A TAPE VOLUME (3570 & 3590 DRIVES),
ADSM MAY NOT RELEASE THAT TAPE: THE VOLUME WILL REMAIN "IN USE"

ORIGINATING DETAILS:
When ADSM reports that data on a volume needs to be moved to a
new cartridge due to volume errors, ADSM will continue to hold
that volume in a state of "in use".  This, in turn, can cause
any other operations or processes requesting this volume to
fail.  This problem only affects 3570 and 3590 drives.  The
following error messages will be seen in the activity log when
this condition is encountered:
   ANR8830E Internal 3590 drive diagnostics detect excessive
            media failures for volume . Access mode is now set
            to "read-only".
   ANR8831W Because of media errors for volume , data should
            be removed as soon as possible.
   ANR9999D mmslib.c(5108): Entry not found in activity list;
            lib=ADSM3494, vol=.
   ANR8468I 3590 volume  dismounted from drive DRIVE1
            (/dev/rmt8) in library ADSM3494.

LOCAL FIX AS REPORTED BY ORIGINATOR:
Recycling the ADSM Server will resolve this situation.  It is
recommended, however, that the data contained on any of the tape
volumes generating these errors be moved to another cartridge.

RESPONDER SUMMARY:
****************************************************************
* USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
ADSM AIX, NT, SUN and HP servers with 3570/3590 drives.
****************************************************************
* PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
On 3570/3590 drives, ADSM marks a volume read-only to
prevent further writes if the internal drive diagnostics
have detected excessive media failures.  Any other server
operations that use this volume will not start because
ADSM believes the volume is still in use.
If the activity log contains ANR8830E and ANR8831W messages,
then the customer has encountered this problem.
****************************************************************
* RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
Apply the PTF when available.
****************************************************************
ADSM allows operations that use a cartridge marked read-only
to start.  It does not believe the volume is still in use.

RESPONDER CONCLUSION:
None

TEMPORARY FIX:
Halt and restart the ADSM server.