NOW you tell me. I just went through a terrible time replacing a HP
LTO-4 drive in a library. After futzing around for several hours, I
wound up bouncing the TSM server. Other vendors (Sun/STC, HP...) aren't
sympathetic to requests to change the drive serial number.

I don't think serial number changing is a realistic solution to this
issue. It kinda takes away the whole point of serial numbers in the
first place. Perhaps I should APAR the failure of DEFINE PATH, DEFINE
DRIVE, etc to deal with a drive swap and serial number change. (AIX
5.5.1 TSM server)

Roger Deschner      University of Illinois at Chicago     rogerd AT uic DOT edu
               Academic Computing & Communications Center


On Wed, 8 Jul 2009, Len Boyle wrote:

>In fact we found out that for lto-3 and lto-4 tape drives in an IBM 3584 
>library,  it is required that they change the serial number to match the old 
>tape drive. Because IBM tracks the drives by serial number for maint 
>contracts. This we found when the serial numbers that we send in for a maint 
>contract renewal were kicked out as field engineering  had not been updating 
>the serial numbers. But not for lto-2 tape drives.
>
>len
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf 
>Of Sean English
>Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 11:47 AM
>To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Replacing tape drives (or "there has to be a better way")
>
>Zoltan,
>
>The majority of our TSM servers are AIX and we do have a setup where we
>share multiple library clients with one library.  When we have IBM CEs
>come out and replace drives, they just change the serial number on the new
>drive to match the old drive they are replacing.  Apparently there is a
>way to do that on the drive itself.
>
>Thanks,
>Sean
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU <zforray AT VCU DOT EDU>
>Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
>07/08/2009 11:30 AM
>Please respond to
>"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
>
>
>To
>ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>cc
>
>Subject
>[ADSM-L] Replacing tape drives (or "there has to be a better way")
>
>
>
>
>
>
>I need thoughts/suggestions/help on how to deal with SAN attached tape
>drive replacements when a library is shared amongst 5-servers.
>
>We just has a drive replaced, therefore giving us a new serial number
>(3494ATL - TS1130).  All servers that use these drives/libraries are
>RedHat Linux and use very current lin_tape drivers.
>
>Currently, the method we use is to bounce each server so the system
>rescans the SAN and gets the new serial number.
>
>In the past, just stopping the TSM server and then restarting the lin_tape
>driver would often be enough. Now with the latest lin_tape drivers, I
>don't see the lin_taped daemon running any more.
>
>Yes, I have tried updating the paths on the library manager server and
>telling it to autodetect but that didn't help.
>
>There has to be a better way!  If you have a similar configuration, how do
>you handle this scenario?
>