Re: Tape drive replacement -- MIDRANGE-L

I know I know! i did an IPL of the IOP that controlled both the MAG
TAPE IOA and the... ETHERNET IOA! i got some serious cussing out of
the people upstairs for that... Know when i build a system i try to
keep that IOA on it's own IOP...

Best Regards,

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Jim Oberholtzer
<midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The "Why" behind the IOP/IOA or IOA reset is in good to know as well.
During the IPL sequence for the card, the card reports to LIC what types
of devices are attached, and downloads the drivers needed for what is
attached. So, if you change the device, the IOA is almost certainly not
going to have the correct drivers loaded, hence the IPL of the card.

Note: If you still have an IOP/IOA combination be really sure the IOP
does not have something else attached to it, like DASD. That'll ruin
your day if you IPL and/or move that card. (don't ask how I know.....)

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

On 5/15/2012 3:09 PM, DrFranken wrote:

Yeah that there's a good tip! I call that one a "Land Mine" and you
learned how to find them!

Note that if you DLPAR the library among different partitions this isn't
an issue because you ARE IPLing the IOA (and IOP if needed) with each move.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

On 5/15/2012 3:31 PM,rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

*This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(r) Pro*
If you replace a tape drive within a tape library (and maybe even just a
regular tape drive too) it's a good idea to power cycle the card which
controls that tape drive. Because if the serial number stored in
WRKHDWRSC *STG for the drives (not the library) doesn't match the new
drive serial number your first tape operation will fail. Alternatively a
CHKTAP "may" do it. But when you have a library with multiple drives
shared by multiple lpars technically it could be months before a
particular lpar hits a particular drive and getting the chktap to hit all
drives for each lpar is tough. Easier to power cycle the card. Here was
the memo I used internally.

Just to recap what we've found.

Last night a backup blew. On the web based GUI for our TS3310 (aka 3576)
I noticed that the serial number for the new drive is 1210419702. In
WRKHDWRSC *STG. I used "9=Work with resource" on the "Tape Library". This
displayed the drives associated with that library. One of them did not
match the serial numbers of the drives associated with that library. It
was the serial number of the old drive that was replaced. I could see
that with "7=Display resource detail". I went back to WRKHDWRSC *STG and
used option "7=Display resource detail" on the controller card for that
tape. I wrote down the "Location". So I varied off the library by using
WRKMLBSTS and option 2. Then I went into STRSST, 1. Start a service tool,
7. Hardware service manager, 1. Packaging hardware resources (systems,
frames, cards,...), and drilled down with "9=Hardware contained within
package". Once I found that card I used "3=Concurrent maintenance" to
power the card off/on. After that was done I got out of STRSST and into
WRKHDWRSC *STG again. Now the serial number is correct.
Verified for all lpars and power cycled card as necessary. I had to power
cycle cards on two of the four lpars. The third lpar aborted during the
CHKTAP when Mike was here. The fourth lpar aborted during the backup last
night.

General rule: Power cycle controller or IOA card after replacing tape
drive. You'll have to vary off library before hand and on again
afterwards. Failure to do say may result in backup aborting with strange
dumps.

Rob Berendt

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