Tape drive Offline

Products

• MIM Resource Sharing (MIM)
• MIM Data Sharing (MII)
• MIM Tape Sharing (MIA)
• MIM Message Sharing (MIC)

Issue/Introduction

Recently had an issue with a Tape drive which went offline(device address - 3137) due to hardware issues. As it is shared across the 4 systems, via MIM, we were getting WTORs from DFHSM continuously asking to reply the Device Number for the 3137 tape drive which is offline.

We then issued the below command to make the device offline from MIM.

/F MIA,VARY 3137 OVERGENNED
/F MIA,VARY 3137 NOTAVAILABLE SYSA


After the Hardware problem was resolved, attempts were made to bring the device back online, but had problems doing so, Below are the responses:


1. z/OS VARY command: /V 3137,ONLINE
MIM2057W 3137 is not a valid for a VARY ONLINE - NOT AVAILABLE

2. MIA VARY command: /F MIA, VARY 3137 ONLINE SYSA
MIM2021I - Vary process pending

3. MIA VARY command: /F MIA, VARY 3137 AVAILABLE SYSA
MIM2057W 3137 is not a valid for a VARY ONLINE - OVERGENNED

Environment

Release : 12.5

Component : MIA

Cause

If a special CA MIA status, such as NOTAVAILABLE and OVERGENNED, is given to a device, then you must use the CA MIA VARY command to remove the status.

Resolution

The likely reason is that a previous MIM command was issued to mark this device OVERGENED.

• Try to remove the OVERGENNED status by issuing the following command:

/F MIA,VARY 3137 NOTOVERGENNED

This should return the device from the OVERGENNED status to normal status and vary the device online.

• If the device does not automatically come back online, issue the following command:

/F MIA,VARY 3137 AVAILABLE

This should make the device available for allocation by removing NOTAVAILABLE status and issues a VARY ONLINE to the device.