customer with diagnostic and repair information before they call for service, which can eliminate
unnecessary service calls.
The SIM and MIM functions were developed to improve 3592 product serviceability. See “Service and
Media Information messages (SIMs and MIMs)” on page 39 and “Statistical Analysis and Reporting
System (SARS)” on page 43 for details. Another accommodation of the 3592 is the ability to use the
TapeAlert industry standard.
Service Information messages (SIM)
The SIM contains the machine type, machine serial number, and Field Replaceable Unit (FRU)
information. This information allows the dispatch of the appropriate service personnel and the
replacement parts that are required to correct the machine fault. This procedure helps improve service
response time and machine repair time. See “SIMs” on page 39 for information.
Media Information messages (MIM)
The MIM identifies problems with the media and with a specific cartridge volume number. The customer
can do maintenance within the tape library and prevent unnecessary service calls when the fault is the
media. The customer's media maintenance activity is directed to reduce the time that is required to
separate hardware from media problems. The operator's media maintenance and the CE's service activity
is based on failure events that occur in the customer's functional environment. This feature eliminates the
need to use time-consuming machine checkout procedures to re-create the failure. See “MIMs” on page
41 for information.
TapeAlert messages
When the 3592 detects a permanent error, a TapeAlert is made available to the customer's host. See
“TapeAlert reporting” on page 12 for information.
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
To maintain FIPS PUB 140-2 compliance for a tape drive, load only FIPS-certified microcode into that
tape drive. Therefore, the current drive microcode that is available might not be FIPS certified and must
not be loaded on a FIPS drive. For information about FIPS, see http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/. For
information on FIPS-certified microcode, see http://ftp.software.ibm.com/storage/3592.
The following security levels can be available depending on the drive model.
Table 12: FIPS availability
Drive model
FIPS Security Level 1
FIPS Security Level 2
EH7
No
1
With correct microcode level
when certification is applied for
and approved.
EH8
No
1
With correct microcode level
when certification is applied for
and approved.
55F
No
1
With correct microcode level
when certification is applied for
and approved.
60F
No
1
With correct microcode level
when certification is applied for
and approved.
Note:
1
When Security Level 1 is not explicitly available, Security Level 2 meets the Security Level 1
requirements.
Introduction 23
