tapes get set to private automatically

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PREDATAR Control23

Hello,

i'm facing a odd thing with tsm ( 6.4.3 ), we used it in the same way for years, but now there's something that i can't figure out.

Basically whe i checkin (scratch) tapes, the tapes are loaded as scratch, but after a couple of minutes the library loads them into one of our drives, and they all get automatically set to private.

if i do a q vol i get this :

B00277L5 ARCHIVEPOOLLTO5 LTO5_CLAS-S1 0,0 M 0,0 Empty


then obivously i can't archive data as there are no scratch tapes, i can't figure out why this is happening, there are no other tasks or jobs besides the archiviation which we do manually.


Any hint ?

Thank you
 
PREDATAR Control23

Check your activity log.

If there is an i/o error when using a scratch tape, it gets changed to private to prevent re-access until the issue is resolved. Could be a number of things:
- tape not labelled
- tape in wrong slot
- drive dirty
- bad drive
- bad tape (unlikely since it happened with many tapes).

Anyway, the activity log will be your friend. Pick one of those tapes to find out when it got changed to private.

B00277L5 ARCHIVEPOOLLTO5 LTO5_CLAS-S1 0,0 M 0,0 Empty
This one got assigned to a pool, so it's normal that it is private, but odd that it's empty. I suspect it may be read-only. The server also does that after an i/o error to prevent re-access until the issue is resolved.

Check the activity log:

q ac search=B00277L5 begindate=mm/dd/yyyy (put the day or the day before you checked in that tape as scratch)

Once you have the time frame of when it got mounted the first time, assigned to the archive pool, you can search that time frame without filters because the search I first gave you only looks for messages with that tape number, but there could be other related messages missed.

q ac begindate=mm/dd/yyyy enddate=mm/dd/yyyy begintime=hh:mm endtime=hh:mm
Use begin and end time about 30 minutes before and after the tape got changed to private and possibly read-only. Redirect the output to a file, you will be better served to look at it through a text editor. Search for keywords like: error, failed, anr8***e
 
PREDATAR Control23

Hello Marciant Thank you for the reply !!

Ill be diving into the logs, however just for reference

- tape not labelled ( tapes are labeled )
- tape in wrong slot ( right slot i've cheked against elements location of the library )
- drive dirty ( i have the celaning tape in, cheked the drives do not need cleaning =
- bad drive ( brand "new" drive )
- bad tape (unlikely since it happened with many tapes). ( yep, same tought )



This one got assigned to a pool, so it's normal that it is private, but odd that it's empty. I suspect it may be read-only. The server also does that after an i/o error to prevent re-access until the issue is resolved.

That's what's driving me nuts

- the tapes are brand new pulled out from the box
- we just do the checkins as we go as we did for the last 6/7 years
- also tried to delete the tapes from the storage pool, reset them to scratch.. they stay scratch for a couple of minuts and the i just find them priveate as mentioned above.


I'll be diving deeper in the logs :)

thank you very much for your answer !!

cheers
 
PREDATAR Control23

They become private because they were assigned to the pool, that part is normal. The fact that nothing is written on them suggest there is possibly an i/o error after it's assigned to the pool when first trying to write data to it. If that fails, the tape is usually changed to read-only.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Hello all and thank you for the reply !

i found this :

Code:
ANR8336I (Session: 19, Origin: ARCHIVE)  Verifying label   of LTO volume B00272L5 in drive LTO5-1 (/dev/IBMtape4).  (SESSION: 19)
ANR8468I (Session: 19, Origin: ARCHIVE)  LTO volume        B00272L5 dismounted from drive LTO5-1 (/dev/IBMtape4) in  library TS3100. (SESSION: 19)
ANR8778W Scratch volume B00276L5 changed to Private Status to prevent re-access. (SESSION: 3482)


Were the tapes labeled using the "label libvol" command?

yes, i try to relabel them as suggested on the ibm site .. but it turns out i'm missing dsmlable command somehow....

i'm going to try in a different way shortly

thank you !
 
PREDATAR Control23

If the problem is a mislabeled volume or
unreadable label, relabel the scratch volume using the dsmlabel utility
with the "-overwrite" option


ANR8778W Scratch volume volume name changed to Private Status to
prevent re-access.

Explanation:

The scratch volume encountered an error during mount processing that
makes it unusable. The status of the volume is changed to private so
that it is not selected for future scratch mounts. (Although the status
has become private, it is not defined to a storage pool.)

System action:

Processing continues with another scratch volume.

User response:

See previous error messages to determine the cause of the mount failure,
and correct the problem. If the problem is a mislabeled volume or
unreadable label, relabel the scratch volume using the dsmlabel utility
with the "-overwrite" option.
If the volume is missing from its home
slot, issue the AUDIT LIBRARY command against the library. If the volume
has lost or corrupted VCR-data, relabel the volume. (This reinitializes
the VCR-data by writing to the volume from beginning-of-tape.) Once the
problem is corrected, update the status of the volume to scratch by
using the UPDATE LIBVOL command.
 
PREDATAR Control23

ANR8778W Scratch volume B00276L5 changed to Private Status to prevent re-access. (SESSION: 3482)
Check for other messages above that one, don't filter by volume name now that you have a time frame to work with.
q ac begindate=mm/dd/yyyy enddate=mm/dd/yyyy begintime=hh:mm endtime=hh:mm
Use begin and end time about 30 minutes before and after the tape got changed to private and possibly read-only. Redirect the output to a file, you will be better served to look at it through a text editor. Search for keywords like: error, failed, anr8***e
 
PREDATAR Control23

yes, i try to relabel them as suggested on the ibm site .. but it turns out i'm missing dsmlable command somehow....
It's been 15 years since Iused dsmlabel. It was actually a utility on its own, not a command. Just use the LABEL LIBVOLUME command.
 
PREDATAR Control23

Hello All !

wow guys thank you for all the inputs !! :)

I managed to relabel the tapes, via the tivoli integrated portal with the "add volume " procedure.

After the relabel the tapes are now reamining scratch and ( finally ) i'm able to use them, it's writing data right now, so let's hope it goes trough the end.

first time ever this happened to me, it went without a problem for 12 years straight ...

" come work in IT " .. "it's gonna be fun " they said .... :)

thanks to all for helping me out here !

Have a great day ahead :)

cheers
 
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