Hi Randall,

   We have a 3494 with 10 3590s, of which six (soon to be eight) are
connected to our AIX-based ADSM server, and have been running with this
configuration for a little more than a year.  We are satisfied with its
performance and reliability.  Problems we observed include the
following:

*       Alignment problems with the doors on the 3494:  As you probably
know, the 3494 consists of a series of boxes, each with its own door.
We discovered that  opening and closing the door on certain sections
would cause the door to go out of alignment, causing the robot to
mis-identify tapes (and free slots!) until we performed a "train"
operation (which would hold us until the next time we opened the door).
IBM eventually corrected the problem.
*       Tape drive failures:  We have lost about five tape drives to
power supply failures.
*       I/O station failures:  A hardware problem caused the failure of
the I/O station (the little door wouldn't open).

 Jim

> ----------
> From:         Randall Eggert[SMTP:RANDYE AT MAPCOINC DOT COM]
> Sent:         Monday, January 12, 1998 5:35 PM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      ADSM - AIX - 3494 Library
>
> If anyone is working with an IBM 3494 library utilizing 3590 tape
> drives I
> would certainly like to hear your experiences pro or con.  Please
> contact
> me directly.
>
> Thank you in advance
>
> Randall Eggert
> MAPCO, Inc.
> Tulsa, OK
>
> randye AT mapcoinc DOT com
> 918.592.7353
>