Error allocating SBT_TAPE device

[tfwu]

Folks,

Wonder if anyone out there ever came across problem with Oracle RMAN utility? How did you solve it then? The OS is AIX 4.3.3 M10 and Oracle is ver8.1.7.

RMAN-03022: compiling command: allocate
RMAN-03023: executing command: allocate
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03007: retryable error occurred during execution of command: allocate
RMAN-07004: unhandled exception during command execution on channel t1
RMAN-10035: exception raised in RPC: ORA-19554: error allocating device,
device type: SBT_TAPE, device name:
ORA-19557: device error, device type: SBT_TAPE, device name:
ORA-27000: skgfqsbi: failed to initialize storage subsystem (SBT) layer
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 2512: System call error number 2512.

Additional information: 7011
ORA-19511: SBT error = 7011, errno = 2512, sbtopen: system error
RMAN-10031: ORA-19624 occurred during call to
DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.DEVICEALLOCATE

Best regards,
Christy