Optical support FAQ

Optical support FAQ provides information to help with some common problems and questions encountered with optical devices.

When writing objects, I receive a message indicating that there is not enough optical media space available. However, the volume is not full. What is wrong?
My backup volume is filling up before all objects from the primary have been stored. What is using up the extra space?
While backing up optical media, the task ends abnormally. When I restart the backup, I receive the OPT1210 message indicating that the directory already exists. However, the directory is not listed when I use the Work with Optical Directories (WRKOPTDIR) command. How can this be?
I received an OPT1115 message indicating that the file is not found when trying to retrieve an object. When I use the Work with Optical Files (WRKOPTF) command, the object is displayed. Why am I unable to retrieve the object?
My application appears to be storing objects correctly, but when I use the Work with Optical Files (WRKOPTF) command, not all of the objects are showing up. Where are the objects going?
My application program fails with message CPF1F83 indicating that the file system name /QOPT was not found when I attempt to copy a stream file using the CPYSF command. What is wrong?
There is a volume I want to use, but I cannot seem to access it. What can I do?
Messages are occurring which indicate that I should run Reclaim Optical (RCLOPT) command. A RCLOPT of type *RESET can take a long time. Is there a quicker way to recover?
What is the difference between volumes marked *OFFLINE and those marked *REMOVED?
When I add full optical volumes into my optical media library by using the Add Optical Cartridge (ADDOPTCTG) command, it takes a long time. Any suggestions?
I entered a CD-ROM volume into my CD-ROM device, but I received a message saying volume not found when I attempted to access it. I did not see any error messages. What went wrong?

When writing objects, I receive a message indicating that there is not enough optical media space available. However, the volume is not full. What is wrong?

Either the threshold is incorrectly set, the object being stored is bigger than the available space, or the spares area is full. Display the volume attributes of the volume that you are writing to using the Display Optical (DSPOPT) command. Verify that the threshold and space available values are valid. Also, verify that access to the volume access is writable, and not read-only. If it is read-only, then the spares area may be full. The spares area is a set of sectors to which data is written when the original sector is damaged.

My backup volume is filling up before all objects from the primary volume have been stored. What is using up the extra space?

Several situations can cause this to happen:

Device errors may have occurred when only part of a file was written. When the backup operation was restarted, the complete file was rewritten.
If the backup volume type is WORM, it might have been initialized multiple times before the backup operation, thus wasting some volume space.
If you are performing an incremental backup operation, you might have selected the wrong option on the SLTFILE parameter (*ALL instead of *CHANGED).
If you created the primary volume on a pre-Version 2 Release 3 Modification 0 system, and the primary volume is over 98% full, then the Duplicate Optical (DUPOPT) command may be the only choice to back up this volume.
The primary volume is a 2X media and the backup volume is 1X.

While backing up a volume, the task ends abnormally. When I restart the backup, I receive the OPT1210 message indicating that the directory already exists. However, the directory is not listed when I use the Work with Optical Directories (WRKOPTDIR) command. How can this be?

When the task ended abnormally, the directory was created on the volume, but the internal optical index files had not been updated yet. Remove the backup volume using the Remove Optical Cartridge (RMVOPTCTG) command and add it back in using the Add Optical Cartridge (ADDOPTCTG) command and specifying DIR(*YES). The internal optical index will be updated with the new path.

I received message OPT1115 indicating that the file is not found when trying to retrieve an object. When I use the Work with Optical Files (WRKOPTF) command, the object is displayed. Why am I unable to retrieve the object?

The optical media may be dirty. Contact your next level of support (hardware) to get the media cleaned.

My application appears to be storing objects correctly, but when I use the Work with Optical Files (WRKOPTF) command, not all of the objects are showing up. Where are the objects going?

The files may be held optical files. Refer to Held optical files for more information about held optical files. In this case, the volume may have reached its threshold. Verify that your application is handling the OPT1345 message Threshold reached on optical volume or CPF1F61 message No space available on media correctly.

My application program fails with message CPF1F83 indicating that the file system name /QOPT was not found when I attempt to copy a stream file using the CPYSF command. What is wrong?

The file system portion of the path (/QOPT) must be specified in uppercase characters. The rest of the path can be in either uppercase or lowercase characters.

There is a volume I want to use, but I cannot seem to access it. What can I do?

Duplicate volume names might cause this. If the volume is in a LAN system, it may have the same name as a volume in a directly attached library or another system. If there are duplicate names, only the first volume found is usable.

Messages are occurring which indicate that I should run Reclaim Optical (RCLOPT) command. A RCLOPT of type *RESET can take a long time. Is there a quicker way to recover?

Yes. First read Reclaiming the Optical Index Database to gain a better understanding of the RCLOPT process. Then attempt one of the following:

Run RCLOPT MLB device_name OPTION(*SYNC).
Work with Optical Volumes (WRKOPTVOL) and press F14 (Show extended information). If any volumes show moving as the location, then do the following:
1. Run RCLOPT MLB(device name) OPTION(*UPDATE) VOL moving_volume_name.
2. Refresh the Work with Optical Volumes screen. If any volumes still show up as moving, repeat step 1.

Run RCLOPT MLB device name OPTION(*RESET) DIR(*NO)
Note: This choice takes longer than the first two, but by specifying DIR(*NO), it can cut the RCLOPT *RESET time in half.

What is the difference between volumes marked *OFFLINE and those marked *REMOVED?

*OFFLINE entries are volumes in optical devices that are either powered off, varied off, or no longer connected. *REMOVED entries are volumes that were removed from the optical media library with VOLOPT *KEEP specified.

When I add full optical volumes into my optical media library by using the Add Optical Cartridge (ADDOPTCTG) command, it takes a long time. Any suggestions?

When volumes are removed using the Remove Optical Cartridge (RMVOPTCTG) command, remove them specifying *KEEP on the VOLOPT parameter. The internal optical indexes save all information about these volumes, including the optical directory information. When volumes are added using the ADDOPTCTG command, specify *NO in the DIR parameter. The volumes are added and the directory index is not rebuilt. This speeds up the import process.

Note: This process should not be followed if changes were made to the removed volumes since the volumes were last removed from this system.

I entered a CD-ROM volume into my CD-ROM device, but I received a message saying volume not found when I attempted to access it. I did not see any error messages. What went wrong?

Refer to CD-ROM and DVD on System i® for information about loading CD-ROM media. In this case, you probably attempted to access the CD-ROM before it was fully loaded (wait 10-20 seconds after the tray slides in), or an error occurred during the load operation. Refer to the QSYSOPR message queue to see if the CD-ROM volume loaded successfully.