Glenn,

I believe that the AUDIT VOLUME command is what you should be doing. ADSM
does not write tapes in a format that can be read by AIX natively. I have
had to run through this on several occasions and usually I had to run a
RESTORE VOLUME command on those tapes that had bad data ( I use the word
data because the cause of the problem was software not media).

Thank You,

Stefan Dusedau
infoWorks
A Viacom technology service
(212)258-6739
stefan.dusedau AT viacom DOT com <mailto:stefan.dusedau AT viacom DOT com>


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Glen Walker [mailto:Glen.Walker AT TELUS DOT COM]
                Sent:   Wednesday, March 03, 1999 1:17 PM
                To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                Subject:        Verifying 3590 tapes on AIX

                We have experienced a significant number of errors over the
last few months
                on our 3590 tapes in a 3494 tape library. IBM believe that
they have solved
                the problems that created the errors, but we are faced with
the uncertainty
                of how many of the tapes in the library might have faults
that will only
                show up later. What we want to do is verify all on-site and
off-site tapes
                and try to use move data to reclaim from any damaged tapes
we find.

                My question. Can I use dd to read the tapes simply check for
read errors.
                Because ADSM uses variable block sizes I'm not sure what to
use in that
                respect. Has anyone had any experience trying to verify the
3590 media? I'm
                open to any suggestions.
                Thanks


--------------------------------------------------------------
                Glen Walker
                Glen Walker
                Unix System Administrator
                TELUS Communications
                403.441.7606
                glen.walker AT telus DOT com