Re: Failed GO SAVE 21

If you're at less than V5R4 then I wouldn't upgrade. If you're at V5R4M0
I may migrate to V5R4M5. If only to be able to do a full system restore
on those machines that could run V5R4M5 but not V5R4M0. (If there's a
small chance these tapes may be used to resurrect the system after the old
one goes out the door.) M0 to M5 has it's own special instructions in the
upgrade guide (also useful for upgrading to new resaves). But otherwise I
wouldn't do it. I may be tempted to put on PTF's and whatnot.

Will new PTF's fix it? Possibly. However, the sporadic nature of it
could be due to other factors. Especially if this used to work fine but
just started happening. Factors such as:
- tape wear
- drive head wear
- other drive wear
- cable connections wearing or having been recently jarred
- card, bus, etc issues.

We have some lpars that only get backed up to tape once a quarter. It had
gotten so bad it was considered miraculous to get through a whole save. We
changed from SCSI tape to fiber tape and from LTO3 to LTO4. This changed:
- IOA cards
- All cables
- All tape drives in the library
- All tape volumes.

That was quite effective.

Did you know that tape libraries, and the drives themselves, often have
their own firmware? On my LTO libraries I use the web interface to the
library to upgrade the firmware on the library and on the drives. I hear
tell there's some strange way on some libraries to read it from tape.

When you put on a MF* ptf it may upgrade the firmware on the IOA or IOP
but not the tape drive or library. That requires different work.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: John McKee <jmmckee3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08/26/2015 04:39 PM
Subject: Re: Failed GO SAVE 21
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



I was told we have hardware support until end of year.

On 3590 panel, I saw an entry to do a reset. When I did that, diagnostics
ran. Nothing displayed as if an error had been found.

I called IBM. I was sent to a hardware tech. He said the LIC log in SST
was software, not hardware. The two options he worked with as far as
hardware logs showed no entries.

He suggested getting current on PTFs, maybe moving to v5r4m5. While we
were talking, two more entries were added to the log, both are described
as
"Storage Management". They were posted less than 30 seonds apart. Nothing
else has been posted in the last 30 minutes.

If this is PTF related, it definitely goes against the mantra of "if it
ain't broke...". Is there any way to know if it is a PTF issue? System
is
pretty much idling now, but might still be some rumbling if it were to
become unavailable. And, my ancient fears of the dreaded "Link Loader
error" remain. I know it has been said that "Link Loader" error was fixed
a long time ago - by people on the list who definitely know.

Still, if it is software, since no changes have been made to hardware
since
a disk drive failed months ago, I can't help but wonder why a tape change
is now suddenly an issue.

I was told that even without software support, I can order PTFs. That,
from a hardware guy.

Is the answer as simple as "just do it"? And the next GO SAVE 21 will
magically be OK?

John McKee



On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 1:21 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It has been a LONG time since I've had a 3590. My evolution on AS/400
(then IBM i) tape was "something" like:
9348
QIC (various sizes)
3570
3580
3590
LTO1
LTO3
LTO4
with an 8mm thrown in there somewhere but we maybe only used it for

vendor

software. I can't remember.

I can't remember if the 3590 had a menu system to power it down or some
such thing. My LTO libraries seem to have such a thing. But even so, I
often use the web interface to it instead.



Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: John McKee <jmmckee3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08/26/2015 02:12 PM
Subject: Re: Failed GO SAVE 21
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



I can certainly agree that the final save could well be needed.

I am looking at Licensed Internal Code Log. A lot of entries. Not sure
how far back they go. Looks like older than 2014 at least.

My backup this morning resulted in 13 entries:

Source/Sink : 6
Tape support: 5
Damage set: 1
Error analysis: 1

And, two storage management entries from 12:11 and 12:40

I have no idea what the last two entries might be related to. But,

there

are 46 entries just from 8/19/15 - and a bunch more further back. Also
DASD support on 08/19/15.

I wish I knew what this was about.

System has not been IPLed for a few months.

To reboot 3590 - is that just cycle the power switch? I hate asking

such

naive questions.

John McKee


On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 12:14 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You could try rebooting 3590 and the IBM i and see if that helps.

You might want that one final save...


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: John McKee <jmmckee3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion

<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Date: 08/26/2015 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: Failed GO SAVE 21
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Maintenance was dropped by IBM on 3590. Maybe the point of backups is
past
anyway. System was "frozen" earlier in the week. No new data will be
written. Just gets shut down at some point - likely when something
breaks.

I ust thought it odd that a tape change request never came.

Can't help but wonder if this might be another of those stupid "if it
ain't
broke" things where a problem might have been identified and a PTF was
prepared. Just not fixed here.

Thanks anyway.

John McKee

On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 11:31 AM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

Smells more like an I/O failure to the drive or an actual error at

the

drive. Honestly unless you are a very large shop we don't see many

3590s

out there any more, they are getting a bit long in the tooth.

Have IBM help you look in PAL and SAL and other logs, I bet they'll

find

something in there.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 8/26/2015 11:33 AM, John McKee wrote:

It happened again. Runs along fine, then aborts.

I did get a job log.

System also created QPSRVDMP.

The 3590 device is in FAILED state.

From looking at QEZDEBUG, I see from the call stack, the last three

entries

are:

qsrProcessIoReqForGroup_FP7qsrList
qsrSwitchMediaVolume_FP15qsrIO_Request_T13qsrTypeOfFEOV
qsrFeovDevUfcb_FP9qsrFileCb

From looking at QSYSOPR, there is CPI5922 Device description TAP35

is

not

usable at this time. No other error message related to the drive

before

or
after that message.

From QPSRVDMP

DUMP TAKEN FOR UNMONITORED ESCAPE MESSAGE

MCH5203 Condition of source/sink object TAP35 not valid.

System (v5r4) has 246.1G and %system ASP used is 67.4779

My WAG is that the tape got full. But, unlike last week, I never

saw

a

message requesting a tape change. Last week, I did see that

message

along

with a message that tape drive needed to be cleaned - which I did

last

week.

So, any idea as to why there was no tape change message?

John McKee

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