Using the CAP to Deposit and Withdraw Volumes in a Silo

A Cartridge Access Port (CAP) enables you to deposit and withdraw volumes in a silo without opening the door to the silo. The CAP is useful because you can add (deposit) and remove (withdraw) volumes in a silo without having to reinventory the entire silo. When you use the CAP to add or remove volumes, Backup does not automatically take inventory, read barcode labels, or locate empty slots in the silo. Use the silo inventory feature and Jukeboxes resource for these tasks.

You can use Backup commands or the silo management software to control the CAP on the currently supported silos to deposit and withdraw volumes in a silo. It is often more efficient to use the silo management software, especially to deposit or withdraw a large number of volumes.

The Backup command to allocate and deposit volumes is: The Backup command to deallocate and withdraw volumes is:

# nsrjb -a -Txxxx -d 

# nsrjb -x -Txxxx -w 

The deposit and withdraw functions are not available in the Backup administration program GUI.

On some silos (IBM 3494 and StorageTek silos when the CAP is set to automatic mode), the silo management software inserts volumes automatically. You cannot use Backup to insert volumes.

On StorageTek silos, due to differences between the internal operations of Backup and the StorageTek silo management software, Backup can only withdraw one volume at a time. You must physically remove the volume from the silo's CAP before you can withdraw any more volumes. On EMASS/Grau silos, Backup can control both the deposit and withdraw functions.