Re: Long SAVSYS -- MIDRANGE-L

Yes, It will expire the tape and all the files on it. Otherwise the tape would not work for native commands outside of BRMS.

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

On 4/24/2013 6:29 AM, rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Yes, there's an expire option. I've just wondered if that really expires
the tapes, or just the data within BRMS. Since the tape doesn't need to
be loaded or anything. At the time I was under stress.

Rob Berendt
-- IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive Garrett, IN 46738 Ship to: Dock 108 6928N 400E Kendallville, IN 46755 http://www.dekko.com From: Evan Harris <auctionitis@xxxxxxxxx> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Date: 04/23/2013 04:42 PM Subject: Re: Long SAVSYS Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx You might try expiring the media using BRMS instead of inztap. Its an option on the work with media menu if I remember rightly. On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 11:41 PM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Jim,
>
> I don't throw the tapes away right away. We put them off to the side.

If

> we start noticing that we are getting a bunch of errors we are often

able

> to track it down to just one drive throwing the errors. Once we've
> replaced that drive, and ran an INZTAP with a CLEAR(*YES) we're able to
> put the tape back into circulation and it no longer has any errors. In
> all the years of LTO3 I think we really only have had one tape go bad.

We

> have replaced a few drives.
> In summary, I'd retain the bad ones long enough to determine if there's

a

> pattern in the drive.
>
> Since BRMS we rarely INZTAP. Basically we reserve it for a backup

that's

> really gone bad and we want to use that same tape right now and not wait
> for expiration (since the reserve tapes are in another city...).
> CLEAR(*YES) is reserved for two purposes. Verifying a tape after a

drive

> replacement, and for when we go to LTO4.
>
>
> Rob Berendt
> --
> IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
> Group Dekko
> Dept 1600
> Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
> Garrett, IN 46738
> Ship to: Dock 108
> 6928N 400E
> Kendallville, IN 46755
> http://www.dekko.com
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Jim Oberholtzer<midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Date: 04/23/2013 07:29 AM
> Subject: Re: Long SAVSYS
> Sent by:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> Or re-initialize the tape every time it's used. That resets the counter
> to make it almost worthless. I never reset the statistics so I can see
> if the tape is failing in any way over its lifetime. Also keep track of
> when you clean the tape drive and how that affects read/write errors.
> When you start seeing write errors to the tape, time for a new tape.
> Tape, cheap. Lost system that is not recoverable because the tape was
> failing, bankruptcy.....
>
> Jim Oberholtzer
> Chief Technical Architect
> Agile Technology Architects
>
>
> On 4/23/2013 6:12 AM,rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> > Have you tried PRTERRLOG TYPE(*VOLSTAT) VOLTYPE(3590)? Yeah, I know

> 3590

> > sounds silly for LTO drives, but it works. If you have a bunch of

> errors

> > it may be time to retire that tape. Prompt the command. You may want

> to

> > reset the statistics every so often. Since you are a brms shop it

will

> > make more sense to you as you will not have multiple tapes with the

same

> > volume id (like IBMIRD or some silly thing carried over from S/36
> > diskette).

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