Have them take a look at PMR 02224,519 - we just upgraded from 4.2.1.15 to 4.2.30 because of an identified "internal defect".
I don't have all the details in front of me, but at the 4.2.1.15 level there is apparently some communications issues. -----Original Message----- From: James, Phil [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 3:50 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3494 Partitioning or TSM Library Manager Importance: Low We have a similar problem with tape drive sharing. IBM summarized the problem very well below. This was the response listed in the PMR from IBM. Researched problem and found that the root cause of this problem is the same as that for pmr 04108,bre. .. The dismount command issues a dismount request the the drive, we make sure that the drive receives the command and we request a response. If we do not get an immediate response we retry the dismount 5X. .. If after the 5th retry we still cannot communicate with the drive we issue an IO error and mark the drive offline. .. In the event of library sharing and/or library fail-over a situation can occur where the drive is not available to the TSM server that issued the dismount command; in library fail-over the library is unavailable for a period of time that exceeds the amount of time it takes for the 5 retries (approximately 5 minutes), if the event of another server taking control over that drive (since we immediately release the drive after issuing the dismount request to the library) the TSM server that issued the request can no longer communicate with that drive and if this exceeds the retry period then we would mark the drive offline. .. While this is not preferred behavior it is not necessarily a defect. .. A DCR will have to be opened to request that in the case of library sharing and library fail-over the dismount request goes into indefinite polling status instead of using a retry period. .. We are currently having our IBM Marketing Rep. open the Design Change Request (DCR). for this feature defect. If anyone is experiencing this problem would you please have your IBM Marketing Rep. open a DCR for you. The more DCR's that are opened the sooner the not preferred behavior can be corrected. You can refer to our PMR # 32181. All help will be appreciated. Other than this the TSM Library Manager feature has been working fine. Philip A. James, Systems Software Specialist Software Services Unit Information Technology Services Division / Data Center California Public Employees' Retirement System Phone: (916) 326-3715 Fax: (916) 326-3884 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Davidson, Becky [ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ] Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 12:27 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3494 Partitioning or TSM Library Manager I have implemented the TSM Library Manager feature. I have 14 drives shared among 4 TSM servers. When I tried the categories and use whatever was available if tsmsvr1 tried for drive 1 a couple of times and tsmsvr2 was using it then tsmsvr1 marked it offline. It made for a huge mess. Now I definitely have to keep tsmsvr2 (the server manager) up all the time unless I am booting the other servers. Occasionally I have had a check out for tsmsvr1 show successful yet the tapes don't come out because there were not enough drives. occasionally I have also had where you have to cycle the tsm software because there seems to be some communication problems. Generally that was when the operators didn't reply to the checkout and the checkout timed out. If I had a choice of whether to go back or not I wouldn't. This made things so much easier in the long run. My tsm server are running with one on an S85, two on a 6M1, and one on an S85 with all of them running aix 4.3.3 and after this weekend all of them running tsm 5.1 (two are still tsm 4.1.2) -----Original Message----- From: Joshua Bassi [ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ] Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 10:19 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3494 Partitioning or TSM Library Manager All, I am deploying 3 new TSM server on a single p690 LPAR. There is a 3494 with 32-tape drives attached to the system. I have a choice to make whether to use the old 3494 category scheme to separate my 3 TSM servers or should I use the TSM Library Manger feature to control access to all 32 tape drives? First of all, how many customers are using the Library Manager feature of TSM? What kind of caveats are there in deploying this feature? How well does the automatic tape drive allocation work? Thanks in advance. -- Joshua S. Bassi IBM Certified - AIX 4/5L, SAN, Shark Tivoli Certified Consultant -ADSM/TSM eServer Systems Expert -pSeries HACMP AIX, HACMP, Storage, TSM Consultant Cell (831) 595-3962 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
