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Seagate DDS4 tape drive on AIX 5.1 - device busy

I have AIX 5.1 installed and running in a 43P-150. I have installed a Seagate scorpion DDS4 tape drive. (STD2401LW). I have set the dip switch settings correctly (5 and 7 on, 6 and 8 off) and have the SCSI id set to 6. I changed the drive settings to reflect what Seagate recommends for the AIX 3.2 + environment.

The tape drive apepars to be installed correctly. From smit:

[Entry Fields]
Tape Drive rmt0
Tape Drive type ost
Tape Drive interface scsi
Description Other SCSI Tape Drive
Status Available
Location 10-80-00-6,0
Parent adapter scsi0
Connection address 6,0
BLOCK size (0=variable length) [1024] +#
Use DEVICE BUFFERS during writes yes +
RETURN error on tape change or reset no +
Use EXTENDED file marks yes +
RESERVE/RELEASE support no +
BLOCK SIZE for variable length support [0] +#
DENSITY setting #1 [140] +#
DENSITY setting #2 [0] +#
Set delay after a FAILED command [45] +#
Set timeout for the READ or WRITE command [900] +#
Maximum LUN inquiried on device [31] +

If I try any operation on the drive it says its busy. I can't do a "smit mksysb", it returns this error:

COMMAND STATUS

Command: failed stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

0512-017 mksysb: Cannot write to the device /dev/rmt0.
Either write protected or in use.

I have tried several brand new blank tapes. Some from HP, some from Imation. Any ideas what the problem could be. I am at a loss...help!!

Neil2526

ASKER

Why do things work as soon as I post on this site. I should post all my problems up here!

I did "tctl -f /dev/rmt0 reset"

and now it seems fine. I wrote some data to the tape and now smit mksysb is working too.

Please close this question.

esanchezvela

that is the nature of the beast :)

regards,
esv.

Neil2526

ASKER

It is. And as is typical, I rebooted and I am getting the "in use" error again. This thing is driving me nuts. I just can't figure out why its "busy".

I'll keep trying.

esanchezvela

would u post the whole error message? please...

thanks
esv

gheist

... error message from errpt or smitty errpt namely

Neil2526

ASKER

It says the drive is available. I get "The requested resource is busy" with whatever I do. New tapes in or out. You can see from my first post the setup in SMIT and the error message from mksysb. Here is more info. I have the drive set EXACTLY as the vendor says. The odd thing is that it just up and started working one afternoon until I rebooted it. Should I troubleshoot the SCSI bus more? any ideas?

# errpt -a | grep TAPE
# errpt -a | grep tape
# errpt -a | grep rmt0
# tctl -f /dev/rmt0 reset
/dev/rmt0: The requested resource is busy.
# lsdev -Cc tape
rmt0 Available 10-80-00-6,0 Other SCSI Tape Drive
# errpt | more
IDENTIFIER TIMESTAMP T C RESOURCE_NAME DESCRIPTION
BFF89323 0321084205 I O ctcasd ctcasd Daemon Started
A6DF45AA 0321084205 I O RMCdaemon The daemon is started.
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0321084105 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
2BFA76F6 0321082605 T S SYSPROC SYSTEM SHUTDOWN BY USER
9DBCFDEE 0321084105 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED ON
192AC071 0321082505 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED OFF
E18E984F 0321001705 P S SRC SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
F89FB899 0320150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
F89FB899 0319150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
369D049B 0318171405 I O SYSPFS UNABLE TO ALLOCATE SPACE IN FILE SYSTEM
369D049B 0318171305 I O SYSPFS UNABLE TO ALLOCATE SPACE IN FILE SYSTEM
F89FB899 0318150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
BFF89323 0318081805 I O ctcasd ctcasd Daemon Started
A6DF45AA 0318081805 I O RMCdaemon The daemon is started.
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0318081705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
2BFA76F6 0317161205 T S SYSPROC SYSTEM SHUTDOWN BY USER
9DBCFDEE 0318081705 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED ON
192AC071 0317161005 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED OFF
BFF89323 0317160805 I O ctcasd ctcasd Daemon Started
A6DF45AA 0317160805 I O RMCdaemon The daemon is started.
7F88E76D 0317160805 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317160705 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
2BFA76F6 0317160505 T S SYSPROC SYSTEM SHUTDOWN BY USER
9DBCFDEE 0317160705 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED ON
192AC071 0317160405 T O errdemon ERROR LOGGING TURNED OFF
BFF89323 0317155905 I O ctcasd ctcasd Daemon Started
A6DF45AA 0317155905 I O RMCdaemon The daemon is started.
7F88E76D 0317155805 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317155805 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317155805 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
7F88E76D 0317155805 P S console SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
Standard input

Gns

Do you have anything else on the SCSI chain? Is it properly terminated?
Also, the
> E18E984F 0321001705 P S SRC SOFTWARE PROGRAM ERROR
> F89FB899 0320150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
> F89FB899 0319150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
> 369D049B 0318171405 I O SYSPFS UNABLE TO ALLOCATE SPACE IN FILE SYSTEM
> 369D049B 0318171305 I O SYSPFS UNABLE TO ALLOCATE SPACE IN FILE SYSTEM
> F89FB899 0318150005 P O dumpcheck The copy directory is too small.
might indicate that you need enlarge your dump lv to be able to perform a successful mksysb... How about a "df -k"?

-- Glenn

Neil2526

ASKER

Yes, there is a CD-ROM and the SCSI disk on the bus. I tried removing the CD-ROM and I had the same issue.

# df -k
Filesystem 1024-blocks Free %Used Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4 16384 9052 45% 975 12% /
/dev/hd2 1441792 1005536 31% 15090 5% /usr
/dev/hd9var 16384 10684 35% 410 11% /var
/dev/hd3 32768 31672 4% 30 1% /tmp
/dev/hd1 638976 247148 62% 23012 15% /home
/proc - - - - - /proc
/dev/hd10opt 32768 25576 22% 299 4% /opt
#

I increased the size of the /usr filesystem. The drive is still "busy".

gheist

run diag -a, does it say anything suspicious ???

scsi bus 0 is onboard controller and id 6 can be disk.

esanchezvela

check this command...

/usr/sbin/fuser -u /dev/rmt0 /dev/rmt0.?

Gns

(About the feasibility of mksysb.... Sorry for not having this in the previous comment)
Would you do a
lsvg -l rootvg
too? The interesting one is probably the size of the dump LV (which is never mounted anywhere)... Look at/report the LP size too ("lsvg rootvg" will show that). Enlarging dump (to whatever is larger than what dumpcheck suggests) is what you need do, in regard to that problem.

Now, about termination, is the DAT the last one on the chain? Is the termination done in the drive or as a separate terminator?

Oh, and a shot in the dark... Is the drive clean? This shouldn't matter, but ... well, easy to check/remedy:-).

-- Glenn

Neil2526

ASKER

Well guys, thanks for your input. I gave up on the DDS 4 drive. I put in a STD22400N DDS3 and it works like a champ. (I did fix the dump LV problem)

It has to be something with that DDS4 drive in regards to the resource busy message. I am going to try it in a Windows machine before I count it as junk.

gheist

IBM AIX is incompatible with non-IBM or xSeries hardware usually.
On the other hand if you want to use cheaper hardware - Linux runs on these machines just fine.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

gheist

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