Re: Tape drive replacement

Well, sometimes. With a Tape Library for instance if the switch is from sequential to library mode, the IOP will have to be restarted. There are older LVD IOAs out there still that require the IOP to be restarted at the same time. With some of the newer cards you can get away with just the IOA. It also depends on the device that is attached, so try it, if it works great. If not, you'll have to get the IOP as well. Then the IOP rules apply.

This all assumes of course that you have a card that is driven by an IOP. With some cards and slots, they can run without an IOP, or if the server/chassis technology demands it, with an IOP. These instances are getting fewer and fewer as the newer equipment is being deployed. My guess is in a year, this will no longer be discussed much.

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On 5/16/2012 9:33 AM, ALopez@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I know I know! i did an IPL of the IOP that controlled both the MAG
> TAPE IOA and the... ETHERNET IOA! i got some serious cussing out of
> the people upstairs for that... Know when i build a system i try to
> keep that IOA on it's own IOP...

I don't know if this will help, but everyone focuses on the IOP when there
are multiple items hooked up to the same one. Within SST you can also use
Concurrent Maintenance to reset just one of IOAs without having to bring
the IOP down. This has saved us when our tape library has an issue, as it
is on the same IOP as some of our disk drives.

Under Hardware Service Manager you can go through Logical hardware
resources. Find the resource and select "Resources associated with IOP"
(option 9 on my version). Find the IOA you're interested in and choose
"Associated packaging resource(s) (Option 8 on our system). From there
you should have an option for Concurrent Maintenance. This allows you to
work with the "power domain" of the resource and power it off and on.

Don't ask me what a 'power domain' is, as IBM walked me through this. But
it did enable us to reset an IOA attached to the tape library without
bringing down the other IOAs that were on the same IOP.





Andrew  Lopez
Systems Analyst