TS3500 Tape Library - Change serial numbers of drives

[Mandrakescrean]

Hi, i have just changed 3 drives in a TS3500 Tape Library for a client but they have asked for the serial numbers of the new drives to be the same as the old ones. Seems a stage request to me but the client wants it done this way and apparently it was done before by another tech. I have been researching how to do this for a few days but cant find any mention of this process. I did find reference to a propriety IBM tool used by IBM Technicians called CEtool.exe which allows you to "repair corrupt serials on drives" but I cant get hold of this tool either.

Has anybody any idea how I could get these serials changed?

Thanks

 

[moon-buddy]

I don't understand the reasoning behind having the same serial number time-and-time again. What has this to do with TSM Operations?

On that note, I don't think you can change the serial number logically without doing something fancy. There might be a way to alter logically through an OS link which would point the real SERIAL NO to the bogus one. However, this may not really work altogether.

 

[Mandrakescrean]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Sorry if I posted in wrong section. Its been done before a few times by an different vendor and by an IBM tech. It seems to be done to keep maintenance agreements straight. Like you say you are not changing the serial its self but fooling the library to thing it has the same drives serials as before any replacement.

 

[hal9000f]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Sorry if I posted in wrong section. Its been done before a few times by an different vendor and by an IBM tech. It seems to be done to keep maintenance agreements straight. Like you say you are not changing the serial its self but fooling the library to thing it has the same drives serials as before any replacement.

Every time in the last 12 yrs the IBM service has replaced the failed drives in our TS3500 and recently TS4500 with the new drives, the new drive took over the S/N of the old drive through the standard procedure which means preparing the drive for replacement, replacing the drive and then finishing the replacement. It also downloads the newer firmware from the drives in the library if it is newer than the shipped one.

Same S/N comes in handy when you are using persistent device naming in Linux, for instance. I don't know how to change S/N in your case :-(

 

[Mandrakescrean]

Every time in the last 12 yrs the IBM service has replaced the failed drives in our TS3500 and recently TS4500 with the new drives, the new drive took over the S/N of the old drive through the standard procedure which means preparing the drive for replacement, replacing the drive and then finishing the replacement. It also downloads the newer firmware from the drives in the library if it is newer than the shipped one.

Same S/N comes in handy when you are using persistent device naming in Linux, for instance. I don't know how to change S/N in your case :-(

Sorry for late reply. Thanks @hal9000f . That was the information i required.