Starting with z/OS DFSMS V1R5, OAM supports expiring an object tape volume whose data on the volume is all expired. The tape volume can be deleted or recycled if it has no valid data remaining because of expired data or all valid data has been moved to another volume due to recovery, the move volume utility, or the OSMC shelf manager processing.

The 3592 support for the new media types (MEDIA6, MEDIA7, and MEDIA8) includes special handling of WORM (MEDIA6 and MEDIA8) tape volumes that have expired. Because WORM tape volumes cannot be written from load point, they cannot be recycled.

With WORM tape, once the volume has been filled and data has been expired or DELETE has been requested on the MOVEVOL or RECOVERY command, the WORM tape volume is processed like the OAM RECYCLE MVSSCRATCH option. All knowledge of the volume is removed from the OAM DB2 tape volume database. Message, CBR2173I, is issued to signal the tape management system that a WORM volume has been expired or deleted and requires special handling based on the installation's procedures. If the WORM storage group has OAMSCRATCH or GROUP option specified for the TAPERECYCLEMODE keyword in the SETOAM statement in the CBROAMxx parmlib member, the WORM tape is still handled like the MVSSCRATCH option had been specified since WORM tape cannot be rewritten from load point. Message CBR2165I continues to be issued for a rewritable tape volume that has been expired or deleted.

Rewritable tape volumes being recycled (OAMSCRATCH or GROUP) have their data set format field reset to blank, indicating no current OAM data set written on the volume.