Tape devices not seen in AIX 5.2

[tlemons]

Hi

Our AIX 5.2 administrator is on vacation, but I need to do some AIX testing in his absence (please be gentle with me).

I found that some of the /dev/rmt* devices on our AIX system were using the IBM LTO driver, and some were using some generic SCSI driver. So I removed all of the /dev/rmt* devices with rmdev -d -l /dev/rmtn. I then rebooted, thinking that the boot process would run cfgmgr to add back all of the tape devices. Not so; 'lsdev -Cc tape' shows no tape devices defined. I fiddled with smit, and found that 'lsdev -P -c tape -F "type subclass description" does show many supported tape devices, in both the 'scsi' and 'fcp' subclasses (which is good, because I'm using Fibre Channel connected devices).

But, clicking on 'Add a tape drive' in SMIT produces a list of possible tape devices, but the middle column of each item has either 'scsi' or 'iscsi', no 'fcp' items listed. Is this indicating a problem?

What can I do to get my Fibre Channel-attached tape drives and medium changers working on AIX 5.2?

I've been wandering around in the IBM AIX documentaiton online, but can't find anything helpful.

Thanks very much for any suggestions!
tl

 

[hirschaj]

Try running cfgmgr down each fibre path individually and see what it tells you. Use the command "cfgmgr -vl fcsX" replacing fcsX with the appropriate fibre adapter. If you get timeouts down all paths and no tape devices are discovered you may have an adapter issue, cable issue, switch issue, or zoning issue.


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[tlemons]

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I determined that my Fibre Channel tape devices are attached via fcs1. So, as you suggested, I ran:

cfgmgr -vl fcs1

and saw this:

Script command is started on Thu Jun 22 11:40:28 EDT 2006.
# cfgmgr -vl fcs1
----------------
attempting to configure device 'fcs1'
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x447
invoking /usr/lib/methods/cfgefc -l fcs1
Number of running methods: 1
----------------
Completed method for: fcs1, Elapsed time = 0
return code = 0
****************** stdout ***********
fscsi1
****************** no stderr ***********
----------------
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x539
Number of running methods: 0
----------------
attempting to configure device 'fscsi1'
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x569
invoking /usr/lib/methods/cfgefscsi -l fscsi1
Number of running methods: 1
----------------
Completed method for: fscsi1, Elapsed time = 0
return code = 0
****************** stdout ***********
rmt0
****************** no stderr ***********
----------------
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x539
Number of running methods: 0
----------------
attempting to configure device 'rmt0'
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x899
invoking /etc/methods/cfgAtape -l rmt0
Number of running methods: 1
----------------
Completed method for: rmt0, Elapsed time = 0
return code = 0
****************** no stdout ***********
****************** no stderr ***********
----------------
Time: 0 LEDS: 0x539
Number of running methods: 0
----------------
calling savebase
return code = 0
****************** no stdout ***********
****************** no stderr ***********
Configuration time: 0 seconds
# ^D

Script command is complete on Thu Jun 22 11:40:37 EDT 2006.

So, it did seem to see the first of the 11 tape drives on this system (that first drive is an IBM 03590, by the way). But when I run 'lsdev', 'rmt0' is not listed.

What to do?

Thanks!
tl

 

[hirschaj]

What sort of output do you get when you run "lsdev | grep rmt" and "ls -l /dev/rmt*"


Jim Hirschauer

http://www.aixexpert.com

 

[tlemons]

# lsdev | grep rmt
# ls -l /dev/rmt/*
ls: 0653-341 The file /dev/rmt/* does not exist.
#

More information. I attached an ADIC Scalar 24 tape library with 1 DLT 7000 and rebooted; a single /dev/rmt0 was created - good.

I then attached an ADIC Scalar i500 tape library with 4 IBM LTO3 drives and rebooted; four /dev/rmt* files were created - good.

I then attached an IBM 03590 autochanger with one IBM 03590 tape drive and rebooted. The system still had four /dev/rmt* files. So I did a 'rmdev -l /dev/rmt0 -d' for each device and rebooted. Now, I don't see any rmt files for the IBM 03590. Could it be that this device isn't supported?

Thanks
tl

 

[DukeSSD]

The 03590 (where did the first 0 come from?) is a 3590, all IBM machines have a 4 digit machine type.

Tape support on AIX is native for most internal (1/4", 4mm, 8mm) drives but AIX depends on the ATAPE driver for external drive support (1/2"(3590 is 1/2") LTO, Ultrium, etc.)

Search ibm.com for the latest (good luck with the search because the IBM website and it's search function is pants).

You are correct in thinking that a reboot runs cfgmgr and this should configure any devices the system can find but if the devices don't have the required drivers installed then the systen won't be able to find them.

In my experience with tapes this is usually because ATAPE is not up to date.

It could be that the drives were configured and working, then the drives had a microcode update, and because they had been configured the system knew where to find them and they continued to work but when you rmdev them cfgmgr can no longer reconfigure them because the device driver (ATAPE) is too old to recognise the drives with their new microcode.

A rule of thumb - update ATAPE for tape drve configuration problems.

Due to the nature of the IBM web site I hae no idea if this is up to date but it might be a good starting point / worth a try:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/storage/devdrvr/AIX/

This site may be of help:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc...p?topic=/com.ibm.itsmaixn.doc/anragd53102.htm

 

[KenCunningham]

You're running:

ls -l /dev/rmt/*

rather than ls -l /dev/rmt** as suggested by Jim (though you don't need the additional *).

 

[tlemons]

Thank you very much for these suggestions! Things are better now.

tl