Chapter 7. Procedures
Problem determination
Begin all maintenance activity at “Maintenance starting point” on page 1.
If you have a well-defined or solid failure symptom such as a FID or an
ATTN
message, use Table 3 on
page 1 to determine the correct service action.
If the problem is intermittent or you are unable to determine the cause of the problem (No Defect Found),
or the symptoms change and you need further assistance, return here, and use the following problem
determination procedure.
1. Discuss the problem with the customer.
• Does the failure occur only during certain operations (load, unload, read, or write)?
• Is the failure unique to a certain drive, cartridge, library, or host?
• Was the customer running or trying to run an encrypted job?
• Does the failure occur only with certain software applications, or has the microcode level changed
recently?
2. Analyze the drive error log. See “CE Error Log menu” on page 134.
a. Look for FIDs with a time stamp close to the time of the failure.
b. If a FID appears to be associated with the failure, go to “FID entry point” on page 6.
3. Attempt to re-create the problem.
a. Run diagnostic tests by using the “CE Loop Diag menu” on page 111. Exercise the functional area
that was causing the problem.
b. Have the customer run the failing job or application, if possible.
4. Analyze the host or controller error logs.
a. Refer to one of the following -
• “Service and Media Information messages (SIMs and MIMs)” on page 39
• “Error Log Analysis - AIX” on page 53
• “Error Log Analysis - System i” on page 63
• “Obtaining drive error information from Linux system” on page 68
• “Obtaining drive error information from Solaris system” on page 70
• “Obtaining drive error information from HP-UX system” on page 71
• “Obtaining drive error information from Windows system” on page 71
b. Look for any SIM/MIM or other error information that might be related to the problem.
5. Analyze the FID FE error log. See “CE FID FE Log menu” on page 135 to display the log and “FID 87 or
F2 - Isolating fault between media and hardware” on page 243 to analyze the data.
Note: With some host systems, you might need customer assistance to acquire data.
a. Look for FIDs with a time stamp close to the time of the failure.
b. If a FID appears to be associated with the failure, go to “FID entry point” on page 6.
6. Analyze the Temporary Error Log (see “CE Temp Error Log menu” on page 137).
a. Look for FIDs with a time stamp close to the time of the failure.
b. If a FID appears to be associated with the failure, go to “FID entry point” on page 6.
182 IBM 3592 TS1140, TS1150, TS1155, and TS1160 Tape Drives: Maintenance Information
