Tape volume protection (TAPEVOL active and TAPEDSN inactive)

A tape volume is RACF-protected when it is explicitly defined to RACF® for protection. Tape volumes are defined to RACF by (1) an authorized user issuing the RDEFINE command without the TVTOC operand, or (2) RACROUTE REQUEST=DEFINE when the TAPEVOL class is active and the PROTECT parameter is specified on a JCL DD statement or during EOV processing.

RACF authorizes access to protected tape volumes through RACF authorization checking. RACF bypasses any tape data set password protection. If the tape volume is not RACF-protected, or the SETROPTS TAPEDSN option is not active, data management authorizes access to tape data sets by password protection.

If RACF authorizes a user to access an explicitly defined tape volume, the user has access to all of the tape data sets on the volume. Therefore, you should only place tape data sets that have similar RACF authorization requirements on the same volume.

You can protect tapes only by volume, by using discrete tape volume profiles (PROTECT=YES or the RDEFINE command). However, you can specify PROTECT=YES for multiple data sets on the same volume (the profile is reused).
Using the ADDSD command for a tape data set results in an error message.
Data management calls RACF in the TAPEVOL class.