Formatting a medium in the library

How to format a medium in the library for IBM Spectrum Archive™ Library Edition.

Format a cartridge by using the leadm tape format command.

The tape volume serial number (VOLSER) is set as a parameter of the command, as shown in the following example:
leadm tape format AA0031L5

When a medium is formatted, the medium folder for the cartridge is removed from the IBM Spectrum Archive LE file system. When the format operation is complete, the cartridge is attached to the file system and a subdirectory displays with the VOLSER as the directory name. The name that is read from the bar code that is attached on the back of the tape cartridge is used to set the VOLSER name in the VOL1 label.

Multiple cartridges can be formatted with one command, either sequentially or simultaneously. The following example shows three cartridges that are formatted sequentially. The -f option forces the formatting of the specified tapes. 
leadm tape format -f AA0031L5 AA0032L5 AA0033L5
If multiple drives are available, IBM Spectrum Archive LE randomly uses one to format the medium.
To use multiple drives to format multiple cartridges simultaneously, use the -t or --threads option of the leadm tape format command. In the following example, the -t option specifies that three drives are used to format three tapes simultaneously, and the -f option forces the formatting of the specified tapes. 
leadm tape format -t 3 -f AA0031L5 AA0032L5 AA0033L5 AA0034L5
The formatting operation can fail if the medium is already formatted for LTFS. When formatting is requested, LTFS attempts to mount the target medium to obtain the medium condition. The medium is formatted if the mount command finds any of the following conditions:
  • The medium is not partitioned for LTFS.
  • The medium has an invalid label.
  • Labels in both partitions do not have the same value.
  • The medium is not yet formatted for LTFS.
If none of these conditions are found, LTFS assumes that the medium is already formatted, so it isn't formatted by default. You can optionally specify the -f or --force option to instruct IBM Spectrum Archive LE to format a medium forcibly, regardless of the medium status. In the following example, the -f option forces the formatting of the tape with VOLSER AA0031L5, and the -n option names the reformatted tape ABC. 
leadm tape format -f -n ABC AA0031L5
For more information, see leadm tape format.