IBM TSM (ADSM) Backup: ANS1017E TCP/IP Connection Failure

ANS1017E (RC-50) Session rejected: TCP/IP connection failure is a client-side message used by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, now IBM Storage Protect. It tells you the session could not be established or continued, but it does not by itself identify the cause. The server activity log at the same timestamp is usually the best place to start.

First checks

1. Confirm that the IBM Storage Protect server and client scheduler are running.
2. Verify that the client is connecting to the intended server address and port, and that the server is listening there.
3. Check DNS, routing, and firewall rules between the client and server. Use netstat, ss, or lsof as appropriate for the operating system.
4. Review dsmerror.log and dsmsched.log, then correlate the time with the server activity log.
5. Check for a locked administrator or node account when the failing workflow depends on one.

Messages that narrow the cause

• ANR0492I indicates that a session was preempted by a higher-priority operation, often because all tape drives were in use.
• ANR0481W indicates that the client did not respond within the server’s communication timeout.
• ANR0482W indicates that a session exceeded the configured idle timeout.
• No matching server activity can indicate that the request never reached the service, pointing back to the address, port, listener, firewall, or name resolution.

If tape-drive contention is the cause

The original incident behind this note was explained by ANR0492I: All drives in use. A higher-priority database backup preempted the client session, which then surfaced as ANS1017E. The remedy is capacity and scheduling work: reduce overlapping tape demand, review operation priorities, add or reassign drives when justified, and confirm that the next scheduled backup completes.

Timeouts are symptoms, not defaults to raise

Increase COMMTimeout or IDLETimeout only when the activity log proves that a legitimate, healthy operation needs more time. Raising them will not repair a stopped server, wrong port, firewall block, drive shortage, or unstable network.

Reference

IBM documents several product-specific causes of ANS1017E connection and timeout failures. Match the diagnosis to the server-side message and the IBM Storage Protect version in use.