Sun StorageTek 9840 Tape Drive
 
Sun StorageTek T10000 Tape Drive
 
Sun StorageTek 9940 Tape Drive
 

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In this Document

Symptoms

Cause

Solution

References

Applies to:

Symptoms

Tape drive loses communication with the host. It may come back online after a few minutes but the MVS OS has already taken it offline.

Cause

MVS will put a device (tape drive) in a BOXED status if it feels that it cannot communicate with the device. You may also find Interface Control Check (IFCC) error messages as part of an IOS000i message in SYSLOG. The drive may have taken a fatal error, forced a dump, and then IPLed. It will come back online after the IPL completes however it may already be in a Boxed Offline state at the host. This will cause a 1320 error in the library log as the library loses communication with the tape drive.

Solution

If the drive experienced a SNO then a dump will be available in the drive. If a forced dump is initiated and there is already a SNO dump in the drive then it will be overwritten. The safest thing to do is to retrieve the existing dump from the drive and then force a new dump. In that way the existing dump is captured and you have a forced dump as well in case the problem was not due to a SNO condition.

- Process to check to see if the drive has a dump in it.

1) Use SLConsole and select the drive. In the image below we opened SLC and selected a drive from the drive list. Then select the display tab. In the tab you will see "trace available - on." Also notice in the display that it shows 614A:dmp1 which is another indicator that the drive has a dump in it. (for FSC 614A) Note that this indicator goes out of the display once the first tape is mounted after a SNO occurs.

2) MD VOP will also give you an indication that the drive has a dump in it as it will turn the drive icon to orange. If you hover the mouse over the drive icon it will show what is in the drive display.

If the problem is not due to a SNO then it may be an Interface Control Check(IFCC)  error. IFCC errors can occur due to a defective/incorrect type component (such as a defective or incorrect SFP or cable) somewhere in the data path from the host to the drive. A forced drive dump will give the engineer information that is helpful to determine the cause of the problem. Be careful when swapping drives/cable to troubleshoot these problems as some re-configuration may be necessary.

If no SNO condition occurred then you will need to force a drive dump for this problem. process to force a drive dump

Retrieve the dump and event log and upload to the SR. process to retrieve the dump and event log

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