Hi

That is not the normal behavior of AIX. Different from Solaris where you have to make a persistent binding of the tape devices, AIX it's supposed to save all information about devices in the ODM DB so in the next reboot it will configure devices still connected based on information of that ODM.

You can use commands in order to review contents of your ODM:

odmget CuAt > /tmp/cuat
odmget CuDep > /tmp/cudep
odmget CuDv > /tmp/cudv
odmget CuDvDr > /tmp/cudvdr
odmget CuVPD > /tmp/cuvpd

is this environment a LPAR ?? if so, adapter where rmt devices are connected (either SCSI or HBA) is a desired or required resource at LPAR configuration ?

Hope this helps