Shai, CBRXLCS is an API to OAM. So the real question; do all tape management systems keep OAM up-to-date on the scratch/private status of tapes. To that question, the answer would be yes (if they didn't, the out-of-sync errors would be horrible and cause a data center to switch to a different tape management system). How they keep OAM up-to-date varies with each tape management system; and even within a tape management system there might be multiple options. But regardless, if you want to determine the status of an SMS managed tape; the CBRXLCS service would probably be sufficient.
However, your second question shows the problem. A data center CAN define all their manual tape drives to SMS as MTL drives. But I doubt if very many do this. Most data centers that have manual drives probably do not have them defined as MTL unless there is a driving need to do so (such as having multiple types of 3590-emulated devices outside of a robotic device). With the exception of a "driving need"; most sites don't want the overhead of having their manual drives defined and managed by SMS if it doesn't add any benefit. Which brings us to the problem of non-SMS managed libraries (there are many; beyond just Sun/STK(Oracle?)). And those do not use SMS to manage their processing. So, if your application uses CBRXLCS to get the status of a tape; it will not work for non-IBM robotic/virtual solutions and will not work with most manual devices. Hope this help. Russell Witt CA L2 Support Manager -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:ibm-m...@bama.ua.edu]on Behalf Of Shai Hess Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:27 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Tapes managers? HI, To check if virtual tape belong to my emulated MTL is scratch, I am using the CBRXLCS macro. My question is, if all the tape managers products are using and supporting this CBRXLCS, API. Can I be sure that when I query tape status, I can count with the results. Another question is, if the CBRXLCS can be used only for tapes libraries (MTL etc..), or if it can be used by tapes managers product for regular 3490 drives. Thanks, Shai ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
