Mountwait time does not include waiting for media

Answer

The mountwait parameter in the Tivoli Storage Manager server device class is the time the server should wait for the mount of a volume in a manual or an automated library. It is the time from when the mount request is made, until the time that the mount is actually satisfied.

When a client session (or a process) is waiting for the mount of removable media there are other things it could be waiting on prior to the mount request being made. It could be waiting for an available mount point or, in other words, a drive to become available. Or it could be waiting for access to a volume that is mounted and in use by another process or session. The time a session or process waits for a drive or volume does not count in the mountwait time.

The total mediawait time does include the entire time a session or process waits for access to a volume. Output from a query session f=d will show, in the media access status field what a session is waiting for. Output from a query process will show what a process may be waiting for. Again, the session or process could be waiting on a mountpoint or access to a volume.