Converting Tape Volumes to System Management

Installing tape libraries and converting your volumes to system management offers the following benefits:

With automated tape library dataservers, tape mounts and demounts are automated. DFSMS and the dataserver work together to automate the retrieval, storage, allocation, and control of standard and enhanced capacity cartridge system tape volumes.
With the manual tape library, allocation and control of standard and enhanced capacity cartridge system tape volumes are accomplished.
With automated tape libraries, tape subsystem performance is improved through the enhanced device selection process used for system-managed tape.
Compaction and media interchange attributes are more easily specified for system-managed tape volumes.
Disaster recovery procedures are simplified. Data can be written to tape volumes at an offsite tape library during backup processing and, in the event of a local disaster, rebuilt from those offsite volumes.

With the Automated Tape Library Dataserver, when you allocate a new data set in the automated environment, the system selects an appropriate tape cartridge from a scratch tape pool in the Automated Tape Library Dataserver. If you request a data set that is already stored on a cartridge in a tape library dataserver, DFSMS enables the dataserver to automatically locate, mount, demount, and store the correct tape cartridge for you. With the manual tape library, scratch pool support can be provided by your tape management system.

DFSMSrmm also plays an important role in this environment. It enables the tape library dataserver to automatically recycle tapes back into the scratch pool when the data sets on the tapes expire. This eliminates the need for you to manually change these tapes back into scratch tapes. DFSMSrmm invokes the object access method (OAM) to update the volume's status during the recycle process. It also causes OAM to eject cartridges from the tape library dataserver to move volumes offsite in preparation for disaster recovery.