User Manual

SCSI Commands Reference Manual, Rev. J 59

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2.4.1.5 Sense key and sense code definitions

The sense keys are defined in table 28.

Table 28 Sense key descriptions

Sens

Key

Description

NO SENSE: Indicates that there is no specific sense key information to be reported. This may occur for a successful command or

for a command that receives CHECK CONDITION status because one of the FILEMARK, EOM, or ILI bits is set to one.

RECOVERED ERROR: Indicates that the command completed successfully, with some recovery action performed by the device

server. Details may be determined by examining the additional sense bytes and the INFORMATION field. When multiple recovered

errors occur during one command, the choice of which error to report (e.g., first, last, most severe) is vendor specific.

NOT READY: Indicates that the logical unit is not accessible. Operator intervention may be required to correct this condition.

MEDIUM ERROR: Indicates that the command terminated with a non-recovered error condition that may have been caused by a

flaw in the medium or an error in the recorded data. This sense key may also be returned if the device server is unable to

distinguish between a flaw in the medium and a specific hardware failure (i.e., sense key 4h).

HARDWARE ERROR: Indicates that the device server detected a non-recoverable hardware failure (e.g., controller failure, device

failure, or parity error) while performing the command or during a self test.

ILLEGAL REQUEST: Indicates that:

a) The command was addressed to an incorrect logical unit number (see SAM-5);

b) The command had an invalid task attribute (see SAM-5);

c) The command was addressed to a logical unit whose current configuration prohibits processing the command;

d) There was an illegal parameter in the CDB; or

e) There was an illegal parameter in the additional parameters supplied as data for some commands (e.g., PERSISTENT

RESERVE OUT).

If the device server detects an invalid parameter in the CDB, it shall terminate the command without altering the medium. If the

device server detects an invalid parameter in the additional parameters supplied as data, the device server may have already

altered the medium.

UNIT ATTENTION: Indicates that a unit attention condition has been established (e.g., the removable medium may have been

changed, a logical unit reset occurred). See SAM-5.

DATA PROTECT: Indicates that a command that reads or writes the medium was attempted on a block that is protected. The read

or write operation is not performed.

BLANK CHECK: Indicates that a write-once device or a sequential-access device encountered blank medium or format-defined

end-of-data indication while reading or that a write-once device encountered a non-blank medium while writing.

VENDOR SPECIFIC: This sense key is available for reporting vendor specific conditions.

COPY ABORTED: Indicates an EXTENDED COPY command was aborted due to an error condition on the source device, the

destination device, or both.

ABORTED COMMAND: Indicates that the device server aborted the command. The application client may be able to recover by

trying the command again.

Reserved

VOLUME OVERFLOW: Indicates that a buffered SCSI device has reached the end-of-partition and data may remain in the buffer

that has not been written to the medium. One or more RECOVER BUFFERED DATA command(s) may be issued to read the

unwritten data from the buffer. (See SSC-3.)

MISCOMPARE: Indicates that the source data did not match the data read from the medium.

COMPLETED: Indicates there is command completed sense data (see SAM-5) to be reported. This may occur for a successful

command.