Managing Common Media with Recording Densities Reported by ACSLS

When a cartridge is dismounted from a modern tape drive in a modern library, the recording format of the cartridge is reported to ACSLS. ACSLS saves the recording format in its database. You can use the display volume command to display this information.

Recording format is reported by:

Libraries:
- SL3000
- SL8500 (with 4.10 or later firmware)
Tape Drives:
- All T10000 tape drives (with 1.38 or later firmware)
- T9840C and T9840D

The example below describes how to manage T10000 media recorded in both T10000C and T10000D formats.

Note:

The discussion below uses the following syntax conventions for commands and utilities:

Commands and Utilities entered as is are in bold.
Variables (you must enter the exact value) are in italics.

Procedure

After the T10000D drives are installed, use the recording format information to mount cartridges on compatible tape drives. Again, cartridges written at T10000C density can be read by either T10000C drives or T10000D drives, but only T10000C drives can append data written in a T10000C format. Only T10000D drives can read or append to cartridges written in a T10000D format.

No special processing is necessary when mounting scratch cartridges. When you write the cartridge from beginning-of-tape, the previous recording format does not matter.

To select a drive to read or append to a cartridge with data already recorded on it, follow this procedure. The following commands identify drives that can read and write a cartridges recording format.

Mounting Non-scratch Cartridges

Display the recording format of the cartridge.
```
display volume vol_id -f recording_format_family recording_format_model
```
The recording format for this volume is displayed.
Use the following query command to identify a compatible drive:
```
query mount vol_id
```
Drives compatible with a cartridge are displayed.
- Select the correct drive type before mounting the cartridge.
  
  This query command returns both T10000C and T10000D drives (because both drive types are compatible with T2 media).
- Use the drive type to separate T10000Cs from T10000Ds.
  
  Selecting the first compatible drive in the list minimizes pass-thru and improves library performance.
Mount the cartridge on a drive compatible with the recording format with the following command:
```
mount vol_id drive_id
```

Migrating to the New Recording Format

When all the data on the cartridge has expired, you can re-write the cartridge from beginning-of-tape, in a new recording format.

For more information on expired cartridges, refer to Populating the LSM.
After all T10000C drives are converted to, or replaced by T10000D drives, all T2 media can be used by T10000D drives if data is not appended to cartridges written in T10000C format.