Will you be using this library with BRMS or the regular IBM backup from GO BACKUP?

Voodoo

Hey Voodoo,
Actually, all I want to do is be able to access, for example, the tape in slot1, then unload that and then load slot3 to access…… if you can tell me how to do it from an AS400 utility I can write CLLE programs
to perform those tasks. The problem is that I don’t see anywhere on the IBM AS400 commands to identify slot numbers.

Remember the old System36 magazine drives?

You could specify M1.01 for magazine one diskette one.

That’s the kind of thing I am looking for.

Sorry, I do not think I can help there. We normally configure the changers to LDR Mode to Automatic, Loop Mode to On, and Autoload Mode to On before we connect them to the iSeries. This way they will configure as TAP01 and not a library. Then we use the standard IBM backup – GO BACKUP. To change the tape we use CHKTAP DEV(TAP01) ENDOPT(*UNLOAD)

LDR Mode Automatic will let it function similar to a standard single tape tape drive.
Loop Mode On will skip empty slots and go back to the first tape after the last tape.
Autoload Mode On will load the tape into the drive when its powered up.

Thanks for your help. That sound like a really good project for a “bit flipper” to develop micro code to make those tape drives more friendly. Somebody could make a tidy sum.

Hey, you could do a DSPTAPCTG to *OUTFILE and than process the output from that file to load the volumes from the slots you want.

We are using BRMS and there it is all automated.
Peter