Is this error getting logged against all of your drives or one in
particular?  When we've seen this error (usually accompanied by other
tape-related errors in the AIX error log as well as ANR8359E "media fault"
errors in the ADSM console log), it's been due to dirty tape heads on the
3590, and our CE has ended up replacing either the head assembly itself or
a brush that is supposed to clean the heads but seems to get worn down
quickly. (We have probably had the brush or head replaced 6 times over the
past three years on our two 3590 drives.)

We're running firmware 9515 with Atape 4.1.7.0 and atldd 3.2.1.0.

-Jon
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Jon Dunn          Digital Library Program / Library Information Technology
Jon Dunn          Digital Library Program / Library Information Technology
jwd AT indiana DOT edu   Indiana University Bloomington

On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, John Valdes wrote:

> All,
>
> I'm seeing what looks like excessive drive cleaning on our 3590 tape
> drives.  We have 4 in a 3494 attached to an RS/6000 running AIX.
> Comparing the ADSM activity log w/ the AIX error log, it looks like
> the drive is being cleaned sometimes as frequently as every other tape
> mount.  The 3494 is set to clean the drives after every 100 tape
> mounts.  Given that "cleaning required" errors are appearing in the
> error log:
>
>   E507DCF9   0602025199 I H rmt0           TAPE DRIVE NEEDS CLEANING
>
> I assume the problem is that the drive prematurely thinks it needs
> cleaning, and that it's not the library force-feeding it cleaner
> tapes.
>
> Is anyone else seeing this?  Is it a problem w/ the drive firmware
> perhaps?  (The firmware in our drives is level 95FB (according to
> 'lscfg -v'), although I notice now that one of them is at level 957D.)
> Or perhaps we have a bad batch of tapes?  (The tapes are only about a
> year only, and most have only been mounted a half dozen times.)
>
> John
>