Space Reclamation - no tape drives free

[wept]

We are having problems moving tapes in and out of out 3584 tape library.
5.4 AIX.
We keep getting no tape drives available in the logs when we run the task moving to vault etc - q mount/drive f=d shows there is a spare.
The constant thing is the space reclamation task is the only proc running at that time. The only way we have found to fix is a server reboot and this is getting tiresome - any ideas why?

 

[Raakin]

How many tape drives?
Is it always the same tape drive that is free?
Have you tried canceling reclamation and performing the mov drm?
What version of TSM are you running?
I'm sure you checked but the drive and path are all online at the time?

 

[lapfrank]

I remember a bug that showed the error "no more drives are available" when it was not the case and I'm pretty sure it was in 5.4. Which specific version of 5.4 are you running?

Do you have drives which are in the "UNKNOWN" state ?

 

[sgabriel62]

Space reclamation reserves the number of drives it needs to perform its task. By default 2 drives per process. So if you are running 2 space reclamation jobs - you lost 4 drives regardless on how many are in use at the time. If you notice your mount point numbers will increase as well meaning TSM will keep a mount reference until the process is complete. If you are wanting your vault processes to run without error - do not run simultaneously with Space Reclamation. Also keep in mind DRM by default - reads the headers of each tape prior to ejection - which requires a drive. If you want to eliminate this read change your DRM values to checklabel=no

Hope this helps

 

[wept]

Space reclamation reserves the number of drives it needs to perform its task. By default 2 drives per process. So if you are running 2 space reclamation jobs - you lost 4 drives regardless on how many are in use at the time. If you notice your mount point numbers will increase as well meaning TSM will keep a mount reference until the process is complete. If you are wanting your vault processes to run without error - do not run simultaneously with Space Reclamation. Also keep in mind DRM by default - reads the headers of each tape prior to ejection - which requires a drive. If you want to eliminate this read change your DRM values to checklabel=no

Hope this helps

Thanks to all - we have 4 drives - all drives,path show as available and online when we get the error. yesterday and previously when doing q drive f=d we only have 3 tapes mounted and have 1 drive spare.
Cancelling reclamation doesnt free it up - only a reboot. The reclamation then restarts but the spare drive then 'works'.
The version of TSM is 5.4.0.0