TapeAlert flags

This section is intended to provide information to the reader about the tape drive by using TapeAlert technology.

All error code and diagnostic information can be accessed from the Management GUI of the library. The drive portion of the Management GUI contains drive error codes. Therefore, it is not necessary to open the Library to access the buttons on the drive. See Locating Management functions for a complete description of the Management GUI functions and displays.

TapeAlert is a standard that defines status conditions and problems that are experienced by devices such as tape drives, autoloaders, and libraries. The standard enables a server to read TapeAlert messages (called flags) from a tape drive with the SCSI bus. The server reads the flags from Log Sense Page 0x2E. Refer to the IBM TS4300 Tape Library SCSI Reference for library and drive TapeAlert Flag information.

This library is compatible with TapeAlert technology, which provides error and diagnostic information about the drives and the library to the server. Because library and drive firmware might change periodically, the SNMP interface in the library does not require code changes if devices add more TapeAlerts that are not supported today. However, if this issue occurs the Management Information Block (MIB) is written to minimize impact to the SNMP monitoring station. At the time of this writing, the TapeAlert flags correctly represent TapeAlerts that are sent. The MIB file must not be taken to mean that all traps that are defined in the MIB are sent by the library or that they will be sent in the future.