Volume serial numbers and names
How volume serial numbers (VOLSERs) and names are used in IBM Spectrum Archive™ Library Edition.
A VOLSER value can be stored in two locations:
- The printed bar code label
- The ANSI VOL1 tape label (the first block of data on magnetic media)
Note: The VOLSER also can be the
name of a cartridge subdirectory. For more information, see Subdirectory names.
The VOLSER is recorded in the VOL1 record, the first record on the tape cartridge in the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) format. When a medium is formatted on IBM Spectrum Archive LE, the VOLSER in the VOL1 record is
automatically set to the same VOLSER read from the bar code label. For more information, see
Formatting a medium in the library.. This operation also records the VOLSER in the
cartridge memory chip. The format command identifies the cartridge to be formatted based on the VOLSER value that is passed by the leadm tape format command. For more information, see leadm tape format. When the format operation is complete, the cartridge sets the VOLSER to the value recorded on the bar code label. If any of the three VOLSER values for a cartridge do not match, IBM Spectrum Archive LE returns a warning message to the error log, but continues to operate by using the bar code VOLSER value.
As shown in the following example, a volume name (
volumename)
is a logical designation for a cartridge that is defined when the medium is formatted by using the
leadm tape format command with the -n option:
leadm tape format -f -n VOLUME_NAMEThe name is stored in the IBM Spectrum Archive LE index file. For more information, see Formatting a medium in the library.