ACSLS not recognising 3590 media label

[Chris969404]

The 9310 has 3590 B & E installed no STK drives. A problem where the library fails "Unknown Media Type". This library has been running with 3590 drives for about 5 years. Is this a corruption in ACSLS config or the Media Server config? There are 2 other LSMs in the configuration linked with PTPs and the problem is only on LSM 1. LSM 0 & 2 do not have this problem. (LSM 0 has 3592 Gen 1&2, LSM 2 has 3590 B & E)

 

[STKman]

Chris,

Something must have changed prior to the problem. What is posting the "unknown media", the ACSLS or backup application?

3590 or "J cart" recognition is a security feature typed into LMU at installation time. LMU's could have recently switched and the new master is referencing a corrupt security file on the LMU hard drive. If they've not switched then you could do one anyway to eliminate the LMU.

If all drives on LSM1 are now doing nothing then I presume everyone & dog are working on this. I would be grateful if you let me know what resolution was as it sounds a very interesting problem....

STKman

 

[Chris969404]

Thank you for that info. I will certainly update you as to the out come
Chris

 

[Chris969404]

Thanks for your input Do you know where this "J" bit is set in the LMU. I assume you need to be ast level 9 is that correct?

 

[STKman]

Chris,

By default, the 9330 code does not allow "J Carts" (in other words, IBM 3590 cartridges), to exist in a 9310 library. At install you have to specify that 3590's are attached and obtain a suitable number for the SME environment. This action was known within STK as "J-Cart recognition feature" and was a measure put in place to stop IBM willy-nilly swopping out 4490/9490's for these own (superior) drives. You cannot later visually verify if this feature is on or off.

If the probelem is elsewhere then its a cracking problem. My second guess would be the backup application not processing the 7th digit of the barcode correctly, but if that was the case then you would expect to see ACSLS (which sits between the LMU and backup application) giving no errors. I would check this by doing an ACSLS query of known 3590 volsers in LSM1 and see if ACSLS shows them correctly as IBM 3590 media or unknown.

STKman

 

[Chris969404]

Thank you very much for this information. Do you know what code revision this feature was put on the LMU code? That is to recognise 3590 cartridges.

 

[TorxBit]

It was put into 9330 code as a response to the release of Magstar. I don't know what LMU code version it was introduced in, but Magstar came out in 1996 - so its been in 9330 code for something like 10 years now.