The storage administrator can specify tape as the storage group type and can then define and alter tape storage groups and their relationships to the systems in the SMS complex. These relationships are NOTCON, ENABLE, DISALL, DISNEW, QUIALL, or QUINEW. See Defining system access to pool and VIO storage groups for an explanation of these relationships.

A tape storage group is a collection of tape cartridges and is associated with one-to-eight tape libraries. A scratch volume is added to a storage group on use. A private volume can be added to a storage group when it is entered in a library. You can direct allocations to a local or remote library or to a specific library by assigning the appropriate storage group in the storage group ACS routine.

If you use the DFSMSrmm storage group support for managing scratch tape pools, you must define the storage groups as tape storage groups. Refer toz/OS DFSMSrmm Implementation and Customization Guide.

For more information about tape storage groups and tape libraries, refer to z/OS DFSMS OAM Planning, Installation, and Storage Administration Guide for Tape Libraries.