Procedure to add a new 3592 tape drive on 3494 library

Resolving The Problem

This can be necessary when 3590E drives are correctly defined on AIX and TSM as well, however new 3592 tape drives are to be added to the 3494 library. These are configured in the Operating System and on TSM.

Define the devclass for new device with the command:

DEFine DEVclass devclass_name LIBRary=library_name DEVType=3592 FORMAT=drive

Attempting to checkin a new tape using this kind of drive at this point results in the error:

ANR8847E No 3590-type drives are currently available in library xxxxxxxx.
ANR8426E CHECKIN LIBVOLUME for volume xxxxxx in library xxxxxxxx failed.

Looking at the drive status it in an UNKNOWN state, while by mtlib it works correctly.

To correct this, it is necessary to use separate library partitions when using 2 different media types within a given library. This is documented in the README file of 5.1.7.2, specifically involving the 3592 drives when the support for this new drive model was introduced, as follows:

"However, for 3494 libraries with two device types (any combination of 3490, 3590, and 3592) the following idea has to be followed: one device type per library object. Thus, for 3592 support, a new library object will have to be made for these drives."

Please refer to the README file available with the 5.1.7.2 release of the TSM Server at:

ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/patches/server/AIX/5.1.7.2/TSMSRVAIX5172.README.SRV

This information is missing from some newer releases of the README file and this documentation oversight is being addressed with the APAR IC39118.

In the case of the 3494 library, the two logical libraries will be pointing to the same device (/dev/lmcp3) for the library changer.

Note that this can be different with other libraries. How different library manufacturers support logical partitioning may vary.