Skip to Main Content
IBM Power Ideas Portal


This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Power Systems products, including IBM i. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).


Shape the future of IBM!

We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:

Search existing ideas

Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,

Post your ideas
  1. Post an idea.

  2. Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.

  3. Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.


Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use

Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.

IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.

ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.

Status Delivered
Workspace IBM i
Categories Hardware
Created by Guest
Created on Jan 18, 2021

incorrect conversion of the serial number for tape libraries

The serial numbers of tape libraries are only taken over correctly in the Hardware Service Manager if they are hexadecimal.
Since the serial numbers of the newer devices now also use letters outside of A..F, i.e. G..Z, these are displayed as "0".
This means that we can no longer uniquely identify the devices by serial number.
Example:

S/N 78-0BGK0 => 78-0B000
S/N 78-0BGL0 => 78-0B000

The serial number is the only quantity that uniquely identifies the device in the IBM i HW DB.


Use Case:

All environments where several partitions save to various tape libraries using serial number to indentify, in our case all our flashcopy environments.
In these environments save is done on an extra partition starting from the flashed disks and find their tapes using the serial number.


Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jun 21, 2023
    This function has been delivered via PTFs for the TS4300 (3555) tape library devices.

    The following PTFs and their requisites provide support for the 11S serial number format with the TS4300 (3555) tape library devices:

    IBM i 7.2 MF70984
    IBM i 7.3 MF70985
    IBM i 7.4 MF70986
    IBM i 7.5 MF70987
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Nov 23, 2021

    IBM agrees it would be good to implement this request so it has been changed to Uncommitted Candidate, but no commitment is made or implied. This request will be updated in the future if IBM implements it. IBM will use votes and comments from others in the community to help prioritize this request.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jun 8, 2021

    The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a medium priority requirement that should be addressed. It is important to address this issue -- we want to strive for correct information, but it's not critical like the system serial number would be.

    Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

    For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

    Nancy Uthke-Schmucki - CAAC Program Manager

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Feb 15, 2021

    The CEAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a HIGH priority requirement that is important to address.

    This has the potential to cause confusion as the serial number implies it will be unique and in this case you can get duplications of serial no. This issue might cause confusion and even data loss.

    Background: The COMMON Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CEAC has a crucial role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

    To find out how CEAC help to shape the future of IBM i, see CEAC @ ibm.biz/BdYSYj and the article "The Five Hottest IBM i RFEs Of The Quarter" at ibm.biz/BdYSZT

    Therese Eaton – CEAC Program Manager, IBM

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Feb 10, 2021

    This is a design change that requires system wide investigation. We will look into it. We will let you know when investigation is complete.