We were getting a fair amount of "36 errors" on our 3584 and they
corresponded to I/O errors I was seeing in TSM.  After talking to IBM and
our CE, we wound up updating our library firmware to 3060 and (knock on
wood) we haven't seen any errors since.

Library 3584
4 fiber attached LTO drives
Library firmware: 3060
Drive firmware: 25D4
TSM server 5.1.1.6

Greg Redell
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co.
Phone: 314-525-5877
Email: Gredell AT GWL DOT com



|---------+---------------------------->
|         |           Peter Ford       |
|         |           <PFord AT STENTOR DOT CO|
|         |           M>               |
|         |           Sent by: "ADSM:  |
|         |           Dist Stor        |
|         |           Manager"         |
|         |           <[email protected]|
|         |           .EDU>            |
|         |                            |
|         |                            |
|         |           02/18/2003 12:43 |
|         |           PM               |
|         |           Please respond to|
|         |           "ADSM: Dist Stor |
|         |           Manager"         |
|---------+---------------------------->
  
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
  |                                                                             
                                                 |
  |       To:       ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU                                 
                                                        |
  |       cc:                                                                   
                                                 |
  |       Subject:  Re: Tape Reliability Recommendations                        
                                                 |
  
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kelly J. Lipp [mailto:lipp AT STORSOL DOT COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 10:32 AM
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: Tape Reliability Recommendations
>
> As for reliability.  That turns out to be a very mixed bag.

<...snip...>

> For instance,
> we have a site with a large fiber channel and LTO
> configuration.  No end to
> the problems so far and they are very serious problems.  Is
> this a result of
> the tape technology?  I doubt it, but one never knows, do one?\

I would be very curious to hear what type of reliability problems you have
seen with LTO.  I have posted here before, but we have been experiencing an
incredibly high number of read errors with our 3584 LTO library.  We
regularly see errors when trying to restore data from tapes.  We have been
auditing volumes recently and have seen errors on a tape during one audit,
and then audit again, with no errors.  There is no discernable pattern to
these errors (across multiple tapes and multiple drives).  Due to the
nature of the data we are backing up, the data does not change often (and
therefore the tapes are generally written to once, and the data stays
there), so over-used tapes should not be an issue.

Anything that you could share with the list, or me directly, would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Peter

    Peter Ford
    System Engineer


Stentor, Inc.
 5000 Marina Blvd,
 Brisbane, CA 94005-1811
 Main Phone: 650-228-5555
 Fax: 650 228-5566
 http://www.stentor.com
 pford AT stentor DOT com

>