README: 40GB DLT Tape Drive and Library Microcode
This package is being provided to allow the update of older
IBM 40GB DLT Tape Drives to the current level of microcode that
is currently shipping from IBM. This microcode update is for
the:
Customers are encouraged to install the latest microcode level
themselves. The microcode and instructions are available
at the IBM external web site:
download.html
To download the microcode to the IBM 7205-440 or the IBM 7337-360 you will need the following:
This package, the 40GB DLT package, will get you to step where you will need to use GENUCODE or AIX Diagnostics, or Atape(tapeutil) to download the microcode into the tape drive or the Library Controller.
Note: The Atape program is shipped with the IBM 7337-360.
It is also available from:
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/storage/devdrvr/AIX
All supported levels of AIX that these products were announced on.
The typical time to install this microcode is .5 hrs.
The microcode becomes active when installed and does not require a
system reboot to become active.
Yes, but the tape drive must be available with no tape in the drive, and no other processing running to the tape drive, or in the case of the IBM 7337-360 no other processes running to the Library. If Tivoli Storage Management(TSM) or ADSM is installed it is best to stop TSM or ADSM before doing the microcode install.
A reboot is not needed as the microcode is active in the drive when
the
drive completes microcode download. If Genucode was used to download
the microcode to the tape drive it will be necessary to use the AIX
commands rmdev and mkdev to have the Vital Product Data
show the new level of microcode. The use of rmdev and mkdev are
described in Genucode part of the install process.
If TSM or ADSM is installed
there are additional steps that are defined at the end of this
README.
Do not power off the tape drive during microcode download as this may
damage the tape drive microcode requiring the tape drive to be replaced.
Remove any tape cartridge from the drive prior to attempting the
microcode download.
All IBM eServer pSeries and RS/6000 machines this product was announce on. In general if the tape drive configures and is available with the VPD showing the Machine Type and microcode level as described in this README the machine is one affected.
The microcode update will bring the IBM 40GB DLT tape drive
up to the current level which is:
0255
also know as
V85
Effective with microcode level 0255(V85) the tape drive operation on tape ejection has changed.
But while waiting for the door to be opened,
the drive applies tension to the tape.
This is needed to avoid dropping the tape
leader. When a drive is allowed to sit in
this state for an extended period of time,
electrical components in the drive
(particularly a capacitor in the motor
driver circuit)
reach elevated temperatures. This shortens
drive life, and failure analysis has
confirmed that overheated capacitors are
a cause of DLT8000 drive
failures in customer's tape drives
This overheated condition causes
premature drive failure and is NOT
a safety problem.
New drive firmware has been released to
avoid this failure mode. After waiting
9 minutes for an operator to come and open
the door, the media is put back into an
"unreleased" state. The drive turns-off
the "Open Door" LED, spools a few feet of
tape back onto the take-up reel in the
drive, and drops tape tension down to a
minimum level. The drive cannot drop
tape tension while the cartridge is
unloaded, because a dropped leader
may result.
While sitting for an extended period at
minimum tape tension, component
temperatures drop dramatically and
this drive failure mode is eliminated.
This means that whenever a drive has
been sitting for more than 9 minutes
since the unload command
(for example "mt -f /dev/rmt/3 rewoffl"
or "tctl -f /dev/rmt0 offline"),
the operator will notice that the
"Open Door" LED has turned off.
To unload his media, the operator will
now need to execute another unload command,
before he is able to open the drive door
and physically remove the cartridge.
In most cases the best way to do this --
since the operator is standing in front
of the drive anyway (to remove a tape
cartridge) -- is simply to press the
eject button. The tape will be unloaded,
and the "Open Door" LED will be lit, almost
immediately -- within about 2 seconds.
Customers are encouraged to update to the microcode level 0255(V85) to improve their drive reliability.
| Tape Drive P/N | Tape Drive FRU P/N | Load ID | Microcode Level | What does this microcode change
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19P2026 | 19P2042 | A17002A3 | 0235(V53) | First Microcode level shipped.
|
| 19P2026 | 19P2042 | A17002A3 | 0250(V80) | Fixes possible microcode download problem when a data cartridge is
in the drive.
Improved error reporting after the tape drive is cleaned. Improved error detection. Improved blank tape handling.
|
| 19P2026 | 19P2042 | A17002A3 | 0255(V85) | Improves error data maintained in the drives log pages.
Improved write error recovery. Improves drive power handling when the drive is idle with a cartridge loaded in the drive in the rewound condition. Maintain un-buffered mode if drive set to un-buffered mode. Improved space forward processing after a write failure.
|
| Tape Drive P/N | Tape Drive FRU P/N | Load ID | Microcode Level | What does this microcode change
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19P1627 | 19P1629 | A17002A4 | 0235(V53) | First Microcode level shipped.
|
| 19P1627 | 19P1629 | A17002A4 | 0250(V80) | Fixes possible microcode download problem when a data cartridge is
in the drive.
Improved error reporting after the tape drive is cleaned. Improved error detection. Improved blank tape handling.
|
| 19P1627 | 19P1629 | A17002A4 | 0255(V85) | Improves error data maintained in the drives log pages.
Improved write error recovery. Improves drive power handling when the drive is idle with a cartridge loaded in the drive in the rewound condition. Maintain un-buffered mode if drive set to un-buffered mode. Improved space forward processing after a write failure. Improved library port command handling for the ring buffer.
|
The microcode update will bring the IBM 7337-360 Library Controller
up to the current level which is:
2.67.0001
| Microcode Level | What does this microcode change
|
|---|---|
| 2.12.0002 | First Microcode level shipped.
|
| 2.67.0001 | Fixes some causes of DLT cartridge not loading into the drive.
|
Note: In some cases you may already have this microcode update already installed. Instructions in the package will show you how to check your system to see if it requires the updated microcode to be installed. This can be checked by doing the AIX command listed in these instructions.
To display the level of microcode in the 7205-440 or the 7337-360
drive do the following AIX command:
lscfg -vl rmt0 <--- change the drive number to reflect
the actual rmt address of the 40GB
DLT tape drive.
The output of the lscfg command will look similar to the following where the Device Specific.(Z1)........ indicates the current microcode level in the tape drive.
DEVICE LOCATION DESCRIPTION
rmt1 1P-19-00-5,0 Differential SCSI DLT Tape Drive
(40000 MB)
Manufacturer................QUANTUM
Machine Type and Model......DLT8000
Device Specific.(Z1)........0250
Serial Number...............B02P4343
Device Specific.(LI)........A17002A3
Part Number.................19P2026
FRU Number..................19P2042
EC Level....................H27532
Device Specific.(Z0)........0180020283000138
Device Specific.(Z3)........
DEVICE LOCATION DESCRIPTION
rmt1 10-78-00-0,0 Differential SCSI DLT Tape Drive
(40000 MB)
Manufacturer................QUANTUM
Machine Type and Model......DLT8000
Device Specific.(Z1)........0250
Serial Number...............A40P2688
Device Specific.(LI)........A17002A4
Part Number.................19P1627
FRU Number..................19P1629
EC Level....................H27531
Device Specific.(Z0)........0180020283000138
Device Specific.(Z3)........
To display the level of Library Controller microcode in the 7337-360
Press: more
Then Press: About
The resulting display will look similar to the following:
IBM 7337 - 360
(C) 2000 IBM
Ser Num: 73370123456
Version: 2.67.000`
The Version is the microcode level of the library.
Be sure to put the library back to normal mode after displaying the microcode levels.
To display the level of tape drive microcode in the 7337-360
Press: Status
Then Press: Drives
The resulting display will look similar to the following:
Drive: 01
Type: DLT
Ser Num: 0123456
Version: 0235
The Version is the microcode level of the tape drive.
Be sure to put the library back to normal mode after displaying the microcode levels.
Note:
Sometimes at the completion of the download of the microcode
to the tape drive the
user may be told the microcode failed to download even when it
successfully completed download. We are working to correct this
problem but for now if you get a message that the microcode failed
to download do the following:
Power the drive or library back on and check the drives microcode level
by doing the following AIX commands:
rmdev -l rmt0
mkdev -l rmt0
lscfg -vl rmt0
This will show the drives microcode level. If the current level is not
shown in the drive retry the microcode download.
There are 2 ways a user can get the microcode files. Each of these will put the microcode on the user's system but the user may have to move the files to appropriate directory for system use.
When the user downloads the microcode files from the IBM web site the packaged microcode files will be put into the /tmp directory.
Note:
AIX commands and file names are case sensitive.
If the users AIX permission does not allow the copy to the above stated
directory or file then the user will be prompted for a new location.
To insure the file was downloaded without error do the
following AIX commands:
cd /tmp/40GBDLT_web
or
cd /etc/microcode
or
cd /tmp
Use the AIX command sum to get the checksum of the microcode
files:
sum DLT*
Compare the sum you get with the sum of the file here, if they
do not match recheck your steps in creating the file on the System:
62995 1160 DLT8000.0255.A17002A3
59480 1 DLT8000.0255.A17002A3.dsdata
08587 1160 DLT8000.0255.A17002A4
26713 1 DLT8000.0255.A17002A4.dsdata
62995 1160 DLT8000.A17002A3.0255
59480 1 DLT8000.A17002A3.dsdata
08587 1160 DLT8000.A17002A4.0255
26713 1 DLT8000.A17002A4.dsdata
24403 1409 DLT8000.Controller.2.67.0001
If you downloaded and executed the RPM file the microcode files are in the correct directory with the correct name for AIX diagnostics to use.
If you downloaded and executed the bin file the microcode files need to be copied to specific AIX directories. The files you copy and to what directory you copy them to will depend on what tool you are going to use to download microcode to the drive or controller with:
The naming conventions used for the microcode and dsdata file are not the same for Genucode and the AIX diagnostics. It is necessary to copy the specific file to the specific directory depending on which program you choose to use for microcode download.
Change to the /tmp/40GBDLT_web directory by doing
the following AIX command:
cd /tmp/40GBDLT_web
Use the AIX command cp to copy the files to the required directory.
The /. (slash dot) in the following commands uses the input name for the output name of the file.
Once you have done the copying of the files you will have the following depending if you selected a IBM 7205-440 or IBM 7337-360 or 7337-360 Controller.
For use with Genucode:
For use with AIX 5.1 Diagnostics and higher levels of AIX diagnostics:
For use with Genucode:
For use with AIX 5.1 Diagnostics and higher levels of AIX diagnostics:
For use with ATAPE download of controller microcode:
If you are updating the microcode in the IBM 7337-360 Library
Controller you will need to determine if the Atape device driver is
installed.
If the Atape device driver is not installed you must install the Atape
driver prior to attempting the update of the microcode in the Library
Controller in the IBM 7337-360 using Atape.
To determine if the Atape device driver is installed do the following
AIX command:
lslpp -l Atape.driver
This will show the level of the Atape driver if it is installed.
If Atape is installed you now need to issue the tapeutil command to
download the microcode to the controller:
tapeutil
Follow the tapeutil prompts to complete the Library Controller microcode install.
Note: If TSM or ADSM are installed refer to the section "For Systems where TSM/ADSM is using the 40GB DLT Drives or Library" before doing the microcode download.
You now need to use the instructions in the GENUCODE package to complete the microcode install.
The restore you did previously restored the linked files to the /etc/microcode directory where the AIX diagnostics requires the files to be.
The diag command requires that you have root authority.
AIX Diagnostics offers 2 ways to install the tape drive microcode:
To install the tape drive microcode using the AIX diagnostics 5.1
or higher do the following:
diag
Press: Enter
Then select: Task Selection
Then select: Download Microcode
Select the drive you wish to download microcode to and follow the
system instructions.
Note: When the system asks where the microcode file is to be found select /etc/microcode, not diskette.
To install the tape drive microcode using the AIX diagnostics 5.1 or higher do the following:
Note: If the previous level of microcode is not in the /etc/microcode
directory you will need to use the -f option(force) as the diagnostics
expect the previous level to be present in the /etc/microcode directory.
diag -c -d rmt0 -T "download" (enter)
TSM and ADSM require that after microcode download to the tape drive or Library Controller that the tape drive and Library Controller be logically removed from the system and then added back into the system. The reason that they have to be removed and added back is that the finger print(Vital Product Data) of the tape drive or medium changer was changed by upgrading the microcode.
If TSM or ADSM is installed do not start them until the following steps are performed:
smc0 Available 04-01-00-6,0 IBM 7337 Tape Medium Changer rmt0 Available 04-01-00-4,0 Differential SCSI DLT Tape Drive mt0 Available 04-01-00-4,0 Tivoli Storage Manager rmt1 Available 04-01-00-5,0 Differential SCSI DLT Tape Drive mt1 Available 04-01-00-5,0 Tivoli Storage Manager Tape Drive lb0 Available 04-01-00-6,0 Tivoli Storage Manager Library scsi0 Available 04-A0 Wide SCSI I/O Controller scsi1 Available 04-B0 Wide SCSI I/O Controller scsi2 Available 04-01 Wide SCSI I/O Controller
After doing the microcode update and any mkdev's or cfgmgr you should
restart TSM or ADSM. Then for ADSM from a ADSM
command prompt:
update library <library name> device= /dev/lvX
update drive <library name> <drive name> device= /dev/mtX
Where X is the number of the drive.
Do these commands for each library and each drive.