Fwd: IODF \soft activate\ to \clean up\ UCBs after a tape library problem?
-- Forwarded message -- From: Emina Spasic espa...@posted.co.rs Date: Aug 14, 2014 1:10 AM Subject: IODF \soft activate\ to \clean up\ UCBs after a tape library problem? To: john.archie.mck...@gmail.com Cc: Hi colleague, We also came across the problem: IEA480E 0A03,TCU,3590,SERIOUS ALERT,SER=0178-91307,MC=F1,ES=11,ID=56, REF=-0089-0109,UM=1007-12C5-83 Our CE has changed R/W heads, but problem come back after day of two of correct work. I did soft activate without results. I hope that you overcame your tape problem and that you have some hint for our troubleshooting. Our problem turned out to be a firmware issue in the tape drive itself. The CE had put in a new drive which had a higher firmware level than the older drives. When he back leveled the firmware to the older level, the problems went away. Thanks in advance, Emina Spasic systems programmer -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Fwd: IODF \soft activate\ to \clean up\ UCBs after a tape library problem?
John McKown wrote: From: Emina Spasic .@posted.co.rs All the way from Republic of Serbia? Your country's spy agency will nail you... ;-) Our problem turned out to be a firmware issue in the tape drive itself. The CE had put in a new drive which had a higher firmware level than the older drives. When he back leveled the firmware to the older level, the problems went away. Hmmm. Very interesting and weird, but firmware? Thanks for posting this head-up. Groete / Greetings Elardus Engelbrecht -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
IODF soft activate to clean up UCBs after a tape library problem?
We had a problem with our tape library. We are sure exactly what, yet, but one CE indicated that he _thinks_ it might be a flaky fibre switch. The remote support engineer said that one thing he suggests to do is a soft activate (software only) of the current IODF. I.e. do: ACTIVATE IODF=nn,SOFT=NOVALIDATE This is to make sure that the tape UCBs don't have any sort of error status in them from the z/OS side. What I've always done, in the past, was to vary the SMS library offline, then back online. I can do this because we only use the ATL, physical 3590 drives, for our disaster backups. These run starting about 06:00 until maybe 11:30. My question is what do the ACTIVATE above do. I've never heard of such a thing before. Not that I'm saying it won't do anything, I'm just admitting to ignorance. -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! John McKown -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IODF soft activate to clean up UCBs after a tape library problem?
SOFT Specifies a dynamic change to the software I/O configuration, which updates the I/O configuration only to the operating system. No hardware changes are attempted. However, you may specify whether hardware validation is requested (VALIDATE, NOVALIDATE). To change a software and hardware I/O configuration dynamically, omit the SOFT keyword. When you specify SOFT, you cannot specify FORCE. You can specify the following suboptions: VALIDATE When you specify SOFT without any parameters, it is the same as specifying SOFT=VALIDATE. This allows you to specify that the system is to validate that any specified hardware elements to be deleted are offline and available, and that there is sufficient HSA space available to accommodate the hardware changes. When a dynamic change is made to the I/O configuration for a processor complex running in LPAR mode, a change to the software I/O configuration is performed for the first N-1 logical partitions, followed by a hardware and software change for the Nth logical partition. By specifying the SOFT keyword (or SOFT=VALIDATE) when changing the I/O configuration on the N-1 logical partitions, you can determine early on whether there will be sufficient HSA space available for the subsequent software and hardware I/O configuration changes on the Nth logical partition. NOVALIDATE indicates that no validation of hardware changes is to be done. Does that help? Lizette -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of John McKown Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 4:46 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: IODF soft activate to clean up UCBs after a tape library problem? We had a problem with our tape library. We are sure exactly what, yet, but one CE indicated that he _thinks_ it might be a flaky fibre switch. The remote support engineer said that one thing he suggests to do is a soft activate (software only) of the current IODF. I.e. do: ACTIVATE IODF=nn,SOFT=NOVALIDATE This is to make sure that the tape UCBs don't have any sort of error status in them from the z/OS side. What I've always done, in the past, was to vary the SMS library offline, then back online. I can do this because we only use the ATL, physical 3590 drives, for our disaster backups. These run starting about 06:00 until maybe 11:30. My question is what do the ACTIVATE above do. I've never heard of such a thing before. Not that I'm saying it won't do anything, I'm just admitting to ignorance. -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! John McKown -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IODF soft activate to clean up UCBs after a tape library problem?
On Thu, 24 Jul 2014 06:46:07 -0500, John McKown john.archie.mck...@gmail.com wrote: We had a problem with our tape library. We are sure exactly what, yet, but one CE indicated that he _thinks_ it might be a flaky fibre switch. The remote support engineer said that one thing he suggests to do is a soft activate (software only) of the current IODF. I.e. do: ACTIVATE IODF=nn,SOFT=NOVALIDATE ...snip. John, Did you get a message along the lines of IEA437I TAPE LIBRARY DEVICE(???) when trying to vary one of your drive(s) online to a z/OS system that had just been ipl'ed? Roger -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: IODF soft activate to clean up UCBs after a tape library problem?
On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 8:57 AM, Roger Lowe roger_l...@bigpond.com wrote: On Thu, 24 Jul 2014 06:46:07 -0500, John McKown john.archie.mck...@gmail.com wrote: We had a problem with our tape library. We are sure exactly what, yet, but one CE indicated that he _thinks_ it might be a flaky fibre switch. The remote support engineer said that one thing he suggests to do is a soft activate (software only) of the current IODF. I.e. do: ACTIVATE IODF=nn,SOFT=NOVALIDATE ...snip. John, Did you get a message along the lines of IEA437I TAPE LIBRARY DEVICE(???) when trying to vary one of your drive(s) online to a z/OS system that had just been ipl'ed? Roger No. We IPL'd about 8 weeks ago. What we got was an I/O error messaage. IOS000I 0806,08,IOE,01,0600,,**,100910,STDBH00D 640 100410C060127050 0091 4204E8205E112011 EQUIPMENT CHECK IEA480E 0803,TCU,3590,SERIOUS ALERT,SER=0178-C4081,MC=F1,ES=11,ID=5D, REF=-0089-0109,UM=1306--83 *IOS003A 0803,INTERVENTION REQUIRED, READY THE DEVICE The TS3500 web showed an error which indicated a hardware problem: Device 802 is reporting an element addr of zero. Call service. But, rephrasing my question, does an ACTIVATE IODF=xx,SOFT=NOVALIDATE clear up any error indicator in on-line UCBs? I was under the impression that it did not do _anything_ to an on-line UCB. -- There is nothing more pleasant than traveling and meeting new people! Genghis Khan Maranatha! John McKown -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
