Upgrading 3590 Tape Drives???
Hello all TSMers Present setup as follows :- TSM 4.2.2.12 running on Solaris 2.7, attached to one IBM 3494 Tape Library. The library contains two 3590 B1A drives. We are soon going to be upgrading our 3590 B1A drives to the H1A models so that we can squeeze loads more on the tapes and free up slots in our soon-to-be-filled library. Now, as far as I am aware, this is a relatively simple operation. Am I right in thinking that all that needs to be done after the drives have been upgraded is to mark all tapes that are presently in the on-site Tapepool (in the library) as read only. After this, only scratch tapes will be used and I will be free to start running some movedata commands to start consolidating tapes (using the new higher compression). Am I right in thinking that the tape drives will automatically use the highest compression available to the unless told otherwise? Am I missing something here as it sounds all too simple? And advice is very much appreciated. Many thanks Farren Minns - TSM and Solaris System Admin - John Wiley Sons Ltd * This email transmission is confidential and intended for the person or organisation it is addressed to. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute, or disseminate the information, open any attachment, or take any action in reliance of it. If you have received this message in error please notify the sender. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifically states otherwise. Although this email has been scanned for viruses you should rely on your own virus check, as the sender takes no responsibility for any damage arising out of any bug or virus infection. *
Re: Upgrading 3590 Tape Drives???
... We are soon going to be upgrading our 3590 B1A drives to the H1A models so that we can squeeze loads more on the tapes and free up slots in our soon-to-be-filled library. Now, as far as I am aware, this is a relatively simple operation. Am I right in thinking that all that needs to be done after the drives have been upgraded is to mark all tapes that are presently in the on-site Tapepool (in the library) as read only. After this, only scratch tapes will be used and I will be free to start running some movedata commands to start consolidating tapes (using the new higher compression). ... 3590H upgrading is fully covered in the server README file.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Is anyone monitoring the drive internal logs or looking at them. It sounds like the drive pressure is out of alignment in all the drives. This could be because the CE you have has no idea what they are doing. Paul D. Seay, Jr. Technical Specialist Naptheon Inc. 757-688-8180 -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 6:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Make sure IBM has removed the cleaner blocks from the drives. If tapes are being eaten, I'd say it is probably poorly adjusted pressures in the drive somewhere or something isn't in proper alignment BUT I'm NOT an IBM technician so I really shouldn't say... In 7 years across 7 ATL's with 7 year old tapes (for the most part) we are still going strong ! In all we've only lost somewhere between 10-15 tapes to total destruction (so 1-2 a year out of some 15,000) Dwight -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 5:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Our Tape drive been very consistent and work well. Most of our tapes are about 5 years old and still going strong. We get maybe 4 bad tapes a year. Tape drives been great. David C. Pearson IS Production Support Analyst System Network Service Snohomish County PUD # 1 ...OLE_Obj... Phone: 425.347.4420 Pager: 425.290.0944 FAX: 425.267.6380 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 3:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
You can have one drive going wrong. I can even imagine two can have problems simultaneously. But if all four together have a problem it is hard to believe. Did your IBM CE verified the robot. Ask for same problem re-open instead of open as new problem. As Wanda said shout, demand, escalate the problem. You've paid a pile of money for those drives they MUST work, period. Upgrade may help and may not, who will have to explain why you spent another pile of money for upgrade. Zlatko Krastev IT Consultant Martina Sawatzki [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] 21.11.2002 13:29 Please respond to ADSM: Dist Stor Manager To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
I'll 2nd that on the cleaner blocks. We had many problems with media errors until we *made* the CE remove the blocks. He shook his head and said Alright, it's your system..Media errors just about vanished. In 6 years of 3494 with 3490e and 3590 drives, I have only had 5 that were destoryed by the drives. Now if you want to count the number tapes destroyed by operatorswell, that's a different story! Al Barth Cook, Dwight E [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/21/02 06:05 AM Please respond to ADSM: Dist Stor Manager To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives Make sure IBM has removed the cleaner blocks from the drives. If tapes are being eaten, I'd say it is probably poorly adjusted pressures in the drive somewhere or something isn't in proper alignment BUT I'm NOT an IBM technician so I really shouldn't say... In 7 years across 7 ATL's with 7 year old tapes (for the most part) we are still going strong ! In all we've only lost somewhere between 10-15 tapes to total destruction (so 1-2 a year out of some 15,000) Dwight -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 5:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives We have all four drives chewing up tapes on regular intervals. To make a rough estimate I would say that this happens once or sometimes twice a month and all drives are effected in the same way. I have no idea if this is the normal wear due to lots of mounts. We always check out the tape which caused the problem and in most cases we have a technician change parts of the drive or even the whole drive. The age of our tapes is different. We exchanged a lot of them to new ones, but also still have tapes which are 3, maybe 4 years old.
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Just to make it clear: the drives do not fail at the same time, but one after another in a certain period. Today it can be rmt1 which has a problem, next week maybe rmt2, another three weeks later rmt0 and so on Kind Regards Martina Sawatzki
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Phil, please clarify.did you completely replace the B1A drives with new E1A drives, or did IBM convert your existing B1A's to E1A's with an upgrade kit? James, Phil [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] 19-Nov-2002 18:10 Please respond to ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ADSM-L cc: Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives I experienced some problems with the B1A drives also, but we caused some of our own problems. We were running them 23 out of 24 hours every day. We cured the problem by going to the E1A and adding more tape drives. The different between the drives is the B1A are 128 track, the E1A are 256 track and the H1A are 384 track drives. You gain one third capacity for every increment you go up on your drives. We current have a total of 30 E1A tape drives between the open systems backup and the MVS systems native drives. Average at the most maybe two calls per year on the same drive different problems never the same. We still have a high percentage use per day. 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: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 2:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Actually, there are 2 speeds to be concerned with. Data transfer from the host to the 3590 controller. SCSI, depends on length and type of connection (34 was the top on SCSI E1A). 40 MB/sec on FC E1A advertised, but I have seen higher (FC) 70 MB/sec on FC H1A advertised (FC) Then, compression voodoo happens so less physical bytes are written to tape. Data transfer from the 3590 controller to the tape (referred to as at the head). 9 MB/sec on B models 14.1 MB/Sec on E models Paul D. Seay, Jr. Technical Specialist Naptheon Inc. 757-688-8180 -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Is there any increase in speed? -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Does the H1A use a different tape then the E1A? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Seay, Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 3:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Actually, there are 2 speeds to be concerned with. Data transfer from the host to the 3590 controller. SCSI, depends on length and type of connection (34 was the top on SCSI E1A). 40 MB/sec on FC E1A advertised, but I have seen higher (FC) 70 MB/sec on FC H1A advertised (FC) Then, compression voodoo happens so less physical bytes are written to tape. Data transfer from the 3590 controller to the tape (referred to as at the head). 9 MB/sec on B models 14.1 MB/Sec on E models Paul D. Seay, Jr. Technical Specialist Naptheon Inc. 757-688-8180 -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Is there any increase in speed? -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
No, they both can use either the J (standard) or K (extended length) type tapes. -- 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] -Original Message- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Bruce Kamp Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 12:52 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Does the H1A use a different tape then the E1A? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Seay, Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 3:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Actually, there are 2 speeds to be concerned with. Data transfer from the host to the 3590 controller. SCSI, depends on length and type of connection (34 was the top on SCSI E1A). 40 MB/sec on FC E1A advertised, but I have seen higher (FC) 70 MB/sec on FC H1A advertised (FC) Then, compression voodoo happens so less physical bytes are written to tape. Data transfer from the 3590 controller to the tape (referred to as at the head). 9 MB/sec on B models 14.1 MB/Sec on E models Paul D. Seay, Jr. Technical Specialist Naptheon Inc. 757-688-8180 -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:30 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Is there any increase in speed? -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience
3590 Tape Drives
Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Is there any increase in speed? -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
We were in the same situation. Also couldn't get 10-20% of my tapes to initialize. Lots of errors and problems. IBM would run their diagnostics and find nothing wrong. They also replaced parts, i.e. the heads, cleaners, etc. Contacted iMation. They said the problem was with the tape drive microcode levels. They told me what minimum level to get to. Had IBM come in and upgrade the microcode and the software levels on various other components of my 3494. Most if not all of my problems went away. I was able to initialize the tapes that previously wouldn't. Bruce Kamp [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/19/2002 10:19 AM Please respond to ADSM: Dist Stor Manager To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
From http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/tape/3590/3590b11.html 3590 Model B1A supports up to 20GB per cartridge and 9MB/second data rate uncompressed. Model E1A supports up to 40GB per cartridge and 14MB/second data rate uncompressed. H1A supports up to 60GB per cartridge and 14MB/second data rate uncompressed [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/19/02 10:29AM Is there any increase in speed? -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives The H1A drive is a 50% capacity increase over the E1A drive. DriveNative capacity Extended Length Cartridge Capacity 3590-B1A 10GB 20GB 3590-E1A 20GB 40GB 3590-H1A 30GB 60GB These numbers are without hardware compression. I believe throughput of 15MB/SEC applies to all 3590 drives thus far. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Bruce Kamp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
I guess these comments make me appreciate the IBM CE that we have. He's done a great job of keeping us running smoothly. John -Original Message- From: Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 10:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives We were in the same situation. Also couldn't get 10-20% of my tapes to initialize. Lots of errors and problems. IBM would run their diagnostics and find nothing wrong. They also replaced parts, i.e. the heads, cleaners, etc. Contacted iMation. They said the problem was with the tape drive microcode levels. They told me what minimum level to get to. Had IBM come in and upgrade the microcode and the software levels on various other components of my 3494. Most if not all of my problems went away. I was able to initialize the tapes that previously wouldn't. Bruce Kamp [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/19/2002 10:19 AM Please respond to ADSM: Dist Stor Manager To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives Glad to hear someone is having good luck with the E1A drives. This past year I have had IBM out at LEAST 2 dozen times working on my drives!!! The worst part is they bring used parts. They have had to go back pickup the same part again because the replacement parts have been BAD a bunch of times!! I have seen posts about H1A drives. What is the difference? --- Bruce Kamp Midrange Systems Analyst II Memorial Healthcare System E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] P: (954) 987-2020 x4597 F: (954) 985-1404 --- -Original Message- From: Talafous, John G. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:00 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: 3590 Tape Drives Martina, I'm surprised to hear you are having 'lots' of hardware problems with 3590 drives. Do you have a maintenance agreement and have you called support when you are experiencing problems? You should! We have a 3494 library with 6 3590-E1A drives in it. These drives are work-horses. We have had two service calls this year. But, you must remember we are backing up 2700+ nodes, are using 700+ extended length cartridges and keep those drives moving data around the clock. As for performance, I have seen transfer rates of 70GB an hour. This is on tape to tape copies of storage pools (You won't see that when migrating disk to tape.). The bottom line is that the 3590 is industrial strength! But, I must admit having no experience with the B drive. John G. Talafous IS Technical Principal The Timken CompanyGlobal Software Support P.O. Box 6927 Data Management 1835 Dueber Ave. S.W. Phone: (330)-471-3390 Canton, Ohio USA 44706-0927 Fax : (330)-471-4034 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.timken.com -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina ** This message and any attachments are intended for the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not forward, copy, print, use or disclose this communication to others; also please notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete it from your system. The Timken Company **
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
We have 2 3494's with a total of 15 3590 drives attached to a mainframe, and to Windows TSM. We started with the B drives, upgraded them 18 mo ago to E drives. Performance/availability of both drive models has been superb. (We upgraded for capacity, not availability issues.) We occasionally see a tape dismount failure. We have also had the brushes wear out and have to be replaced. But when the CE fixes that sort of thing, it stays fixed. We definitely see less than 1 service call per year, per drive, not repetitive problems. The 3590 drives (B or E, I have no experience with H yet), along with the STK 9840's, are the most robust drives on the market today (well, except maybe those things in the black boxes on airplanes) You should NOT be having ANY repetitive hardware problems with them. Most repetitive problems with this type of drive turn out to be backlevel microcode, or bad media. You should manage your media aggressively - make sure you keep a list of which tape is in the drive when you have a problem, and if the same tape shows up twice remove it from the 3494, at least until this problem is resolved. Yell at your CE, a lot. Make him/her check the microcode levels. Call the district CE manager and demand an explanation of why you are continuing to have problems with IBM's premier enterprise class drive that works great for other sites. Make them call in the district technical specialist. Keep him/her on site until the problems go away. Demand that if they can't fix the drives, they replace the whole thing (that usually gets their attention). Sometimes, you have to yell if you aren't getting sufficient service. And sometimes, your CE just needs some help getting the problem escalated in his management chain. BUT, these drives should work. You shouldn't have to upgrade to get rid of hardware problems. -Original Message- From: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 5:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
I experienced some problems with the B1A drives also, but we caused some of our own problems. We were running them 23 out of 24 hours every day. We cured the problem by going to the E1A and adding more tape drives. The different between the drives is the B1A are 128 track, the E1A are 256 track and the H1A are 384 track drives. You gain one third capacity for every increment you go up on your drives. We current have a total of 30 E1A tape drives between the open systems backup and the MVS systems native drives. Average at the most maybe two calls per year on the same drive different problems never the same. We still have a high percentage use per day. 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: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 2:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Is anyone using the H1A drive and if you do... How is it? David C. Pearson IS Production Support Analyst System Network Service Snohomish County PUD # 1 ...OLE_Obj... Phone: 425.347.4420 Pager: 425.290.0944 FAX: 425.267.6380 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: James, Phil [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 3:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives Importance: Low I experienced some problems with the B1A drives also, but we caused some of our own problems. We were running them 23 out of 24 hours every day. We cured the problem by going to the E1A and adding more tape drives. The different between the drives is the B1A are 128 track, the E1A are 256 track and the H1A are 384 track drives. You gain one third capacity for every increment you go up on your drives. We current have a total of 30 E1A tape drives between the open systems backup and the MVS systems native drives. Average at the most maybe two calls per year on the same drive different problems never the same. We still have a high percentage use per day. 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: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 2:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina
Re: 3590 Tape Drives
Dave, I recently upgraded one of my clients from B's (SCSI) to H's (fibre) on an AIX server. We had some initial quirks, which seem to have been cured by firmware. Aside from that, we have seen an increase in the number of tapes getting flagged readonly, which we expected due to the increased track density. We have NOT seen any significant increase in speed, despite the marketing claims. We are, however, getting 3X as much data on a tape. -Lloyd On Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:13:36 -0800 Pearson, Dave [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is anyone using the H1A drive and if you do... How is it? David C. Pearson IS Production Support Analyst System Network Service Snohomish County PUD # 1 ...OLE_Obj... Phone: 425.347.4420 Pager: 425.290.0944 FAX: 425.267.6380 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: James, Phil [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 3:11 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: 3590 Tape Drives Importance: Low I experienced some problems with the B1A drives also, but we caused some of our own problems. We were running them 23 out of 24 hours every day. We cured the problem by going to the E1A and adding more tape drives. The different between the drives is the B1A are 128 track, the E1A are 256 track and the H1A are 384 track drives. You gain one third capacity for every increment you go up on your drives. We current have a total of 30 E1A tape drives between the open systems backup and the MVS systems native drives. Average at the most maybe two calls per year on the same drive different problems never the same. We still have a high percentage use per day. 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: Martina Sawatzki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 2:50 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: 3590 Tape Drives Hi, We are working with a 3494 IBM silo with 4 drives - 3590 type B - which is connected to a RS/6000. As we are having lots of hardware problems with these drives we think about changing them to 3590 drives type E. Does anyone have experience with this type of tape drive ? I`m mainly interested in a kind of comparison concerning performance and availibility between the both types B - E. Thanks a lot Martina -- - Lloyd Dieter- Senior Technology Consultant Synergy, Inc. http://www.synergyinc.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Main:585-389-1260fax:585-389-1267 -
New 3590 tape drives
We're (finally!) looking at purchasing some native 3590 drives for our 3494 library, which we share between TSM and HSM on OS\390. Currently we're using 3490 and VTS for our copypools. A couple of questions arise. 1) Will TSM allow us to slowly migrate our tape storage pools to the new native 3590 tapes or is this a situation where we would have to move/migrate the data from 3490 (physical or logical) to the 3590 tapes all at one time? 2) If we make our TSM backup storage pool 3490 (logical) and the disaster recovery pool 3590 native tapes, would TSM make full utilization of the 3590 capacity? Or, would it be a 1-to-1 tape usage? Any experiences to share, or other concerns to address? Thanks, -- Jim Kirkman AIS - Systems UNC-Chapel Hill 966-5884
Re: New 3590 tape drives
We're (finally!) looking at purchasing some native 3590 drives for our 3494 library, which we share between TSM and HSM on OS\390. Currently we're using 3490 and VTS for our copypools. A couple of questions arise. 1) Will TSM allow us to slowly migrate our tape storage pools to the new native 3590 tapes or is this a situation where we would have to move/migrate the data from 3490 (physical or logical) to the 3590 tapes all at one time? There are at least three ways to do phased migration to new media for primary storage pools. You can make the storage pool containing the new media the next pool for the old storage pool. You can then lower migration thresholds when you want migration to start and raise the thresholds when you want migration to stop. You can run 'move data' commands with the 'stgpool' option to move the contents of individual volumes in the old storage pool into the new storage pool. You can define the new storage pool as the reclamation pool for the old storage pool and control data movement by adjusting the reclaim percentage for the old storage pool. There is no explicit mechanism for moving data from one copy pool to another. You will have to populate the new copy pool by running 'backup stgpool' commands. The processes created by these commands can be cancelled if need be to break the copying process into managable chunks. Once the new copy pool is synchronized with the relevant primary pools you can delete the volumes in the old copy storage pool. 2) If we make our TSM backup storage pool 3490 (logical) and the disaster recovery pool 3590 native tapes, would TSM make full utilization of the 3590 capacity? Or, would it be a 1-to-1 tape usage? TSM will fill an onsite 3590 tape completely. TSM will fill an offsite 3590 tape until it reaches the end of the tape or until the status of the tape is updated to mark the tape as unavailable for mounting.
Re: Question about 3590 tape drives
Hi Gerhard, stop/start processing of the tape drive - the disk pool does not stream the data fast enough to cause a continues flow of data - hence when there has been a stop in the flow of data there needs to be some kind of re-positioning - to continue writing where the last bit of data was written. Normal behavior. Cheers Christo -- Hello, I observed some strange behaviour of a 3590-E1A tape drive. During a migrate operation from a disk pool to a sequential pool I watched the operator panel. There I could see that the device after a write operation did a locate followed by a read and then resumed writing. I observed this behaviour several times. Is there an explanation for this? I run TSM 4.1.2 on AIX 4.3.3 Best regards Gerhard Gerhard Rentschler email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manager Central Servers Services Regional Computing Center tel: ++49/711/6855806 University of Stuttgartfax: ++49/711/682357 Allmandring 30a D 70550 Stuttgart Germany __ The information contained in this communication is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and others authorised to receive it. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in reliance of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Absa is neither liable for the proper, complete transmission of the information contained in this communication, any delay in its receipt or that the mail is virus-free.
Question about 3590 tape drives
Hello, I observed some strange behaviour of a 3590-E1A tape drive. During a migrate operation from a disk pool to a sequential pool I watched the operator panel. There I could see that the device after a write operation did a locate followed by a read and then resumed writing. I observed this behaviour several times. Is there an explanation for this? I run TSM 4.1.2 on AIX 4.3.3 Best regards Gerhard Gerhard Rentschler email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manager Central Servers Services Regional Computing Center tel: ++49/711/6855806 University of Stuttgartfax: ++49/711/682357 Allmandring 30a D 70550 Stuttgart Germany
Re: Question about 3590 tape drives
I observed some strange behaviour of a 3590-E1A tape drive. During a migrate operation from a disk pool to a sequential pool I watched the operator panel. There I could see that the device after a write operation did a locate followed by a read and then resumed writing. I observed this behaviour several times. Is there an explanation for this? Hello Gerhard I.m not sure, but one could guess that the drive was doing some [successful] error recovery operation or perhaps some internal drive calibration ? Regards Peter
Re: Question about 3590 tape drives
When the tape stops during writing it must backup and get the tape moving again before it can write to it. This is normal. I have seen this also on NetBackup and TSM. It is an internal hardware thing. This is very fast on a 3590 and very slow on other tape offerings. -Original Message- From: Gerhard Rentschler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 7:01 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Question about 3590 tape drives Hello, I observed some strange behaviour of a 3590-E1A tape drive. During a migrate operation from a disk pool to a sequential pool I watched the operator panel. There I could see that the device after a write operation did a locate followed by a read and then resumed writing. I observed this behaviour several times. Is there an explanation for this? I run TSM 4.1.2 on AIX 4.3.3 Best regards Gerhard Gerhard Rentschler email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manager Central Servers Services Regional Computing Center tel: ++49/711/6855806 University of Stuttgartfax: ++49/711/682357 Allmandring 30a D 70550 Stuttgart Germany
3590 tape drives
Hy experts ! A question about tape-drives : we have in our tape-library (IBM 3494) Magstar 3590 Modell E drives (E1A). Because they were bought one year ago, they don' t have the facility to read/write the extended-length-cartridges, so we use the normal cartridges with 20 GB uncompressed. Now we plan to upgrade those drives (IBM-upgrade-Kit) so that they can handle the extended-length-cartridges (40GB uncompressed). My question now : are the drives with this feature able to handle (read/write) the old format cartridges (20 GB), or can they only read those 40 GB-cartridges. Thanks a lot Chr. Pilgram
Re: 3590 tape drives
Per IBM they can read both. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/27/00 10:05AM Hy experts ! A question about tape-drives : we have in our tape-library (IBM 3494) Magstar 3590 Modell E drives (E1A). Because they were bought one year ago, they don' t have the facility to read/write the extended-length-cartridges, so we use the normal cartridges with 20 GB uncompressed. Now we plan to upgrade those drives (IBM-upgrade-Kit) so that they can handle the extended-length-cartridges (40GB uncompressed). My question now : are the drives with this feature able to handle (read/write) the old format cartridges (20 GB), or can they only read those 40 GB-cartridges. Thanks a lot Chr. Pilgram
Re: 3590 tape drives
And write. Jim Sporer At 10:46 AM 10/27/2000 -0400, you wrote: Per IBM they can read both. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/27/00 10:05AM Hy experts ! A question about tape-drives : we have in our tape-library (IBM 3494) Magstar 3590 Modell E drives (E1A). Because they were bought one year ago, they don' t have the facility to read/write the extended-length-cartridges, so we use the normal cartridges with 20 GB uncompressed. Now we plan to upgrade those drives (IBM-upgrade-Kit) so that they can handle the extended-length-cartridges (40GB uncompressed). My question now : are the drives with this feature able to handle (read/write) the old format cartridges (20 GB), or can they only read those 40 GB-cartridges. Thanks a lot Chr. Pilgram
Re: 3590 tape drives
The drive can physically tell what type of cartridge is in it. The Extended Length upgrade adds the ability to read/write the longer tapes, but doesn't take away any other capabilities. If you look at the label end of a 3590 tape, there are two plastic inserts below the label (if the gear drive side is down). There are notches taken out of these inserts which allow the drive to tell what type of tape it is. CE cartridges, Cleaning tapes, 3590, 3590XL, all have different codes with the notches. Nick Cassimatis [EMAIL PROTECTED] "I'm one cookie away from happy." - Snoopy (Charles Schulz)
