Ejecting a cartridge from a tape library breaks the connection between the cartridge and the library in which it resided. Cartridges may need to be moved to a different location and must therefore be ejected from the library in which they currently reside so they may be put into a library at the new location. Once the cartridges are ejected from the library in which they reside, they are no longer associated with that library and are not eligible to be mounted in the library without going through the cartridge entry process.
In the automated tape library environment, there is currently a limit on the number of eject requests that device services can have queued across all libraries from a single system. This queue limit is currently set at 1600. For this limit to be as transparent as possible, OAM will not send more than 100 eject requests to a single library from a single system. If OAM receives more than 100 eject requests for a given library, it will wait until an eject request completes before sending another request to that library. However, if the OAM address space is stopped or restarted with an SCDS activation, rather than purging the remaining eject requests, OAM will try and send down as many of the remaining eject requests as it can before reaching the device services queue limit of 1600. Additionally, there is a Peer-to-Peer VTS system limitation. This library will only accept up to 1000 eject requests across all connected systems.
Cartridges can be ejected from a tape library in several ways, as shown in Table 1:
Eject request invoked by | Action taken to cause eject | Associated procedure |
---|---|---|
OAM | Ejects cartridge automatically following an unsuccessful cartridge entry attempt. | N/A |
Operator | Ejects cartridge using the LIBRARY EJECT command. | Ejecting a specific Tape Volume |
Storage administrator | Specifies an EJECT line operator next to a volume serial number on an ISMF Mountable Tape Volume List panel. | Ejecting a volume from a tape library |
Application program | Issues the CBRXLCS macro with the EJECT function. | Ejecting a tape cartridge |
Before a cartridge can be ejected from a tape library, the cartridge eject installation exit (CBRUXEJC) is invoked to approve or deny the eject request. See Cartridge eject installation exit (CBRUXEJC) for more information.
When OAM ejects a tape volume residing in a manual tape library, no automated movement of the cartridge takes place. It is up to the operator to physically remove the tape cartridge from the storage racks associated with the manual tape library.
After the eject request completes, OAM notifies the invoker of the eject request of its success or failure and the volume record in the TCDB is updated or deleted.
For information concerning exporting or removing a logical tape volume from a VTS, see Exporting logical volumes from a 3494 VTS system and Ejecting a logical Volume from a VTS.