Special VTS considerations

Tape Optimizer can copy tape volumes to or from a VTS. Some special considerations apply to these copy operations.

If you plan to define copy requests that involve a VTS, consider these points:

• A VTS stores tape data sets in logical volumes on disk arrays and in disk cache. This storage is SMS-managed. Tape Optimizer can use an SMS storage class to select the VTS virtual tape drive to use as an input or output tape drive for a copy request.
• You can identify the VTS virtual tape drive to use for the input or output tape volumes by using one of the following methods:
  • When identifying the input or output tape unit for a copy request, specify a storage class instead of a tape esoteric, generic unit name, or unit address. The storage class will be passed to your ACS routines and used to select a VTS virtual tape drive.
  • Select the option Use 1st VOLSER for Input Unit Allocation (the default setting) in the Copy Options window to have Tape Optimizer allocate a tape drive from the library where the first tape volume that is selected for copying is located.
  • Check your ACS routines to determine if an SMS storage class is defined that maps to the generic tape unit that you want to use for the VTS. Then, when creating a copy request, specify the generic unit name as the input or output tape device.
  • From ISPF, rename all of the copy jobs that Tape Optimizer generates for the VTS target to the same job name. Then, for all jobs by that name, add code to your ACS routine for choosing an SMS storage class that maps to the VTS target.