Foreign Tape Processing

A foreign tape is a tape that has not been defined to the Tape Management System. Foreign tapes fall into two categories, VOLSERs that were never defined to the Tape Management System and duplicate VOLSERs.

Foreign tape processing involves coding a special value in your JCL to indicate that the Tape Management System should not track and validate the use of the VOLSER referenced. The special value is typically LABEL=EXPDT=98000.

CA Vtape has similar capability which is controlled by the ForeignTapesExpdt attribute in the Dynamic Options Section of parmlib. When a specific mount request for a CA Vtape VOLSER is detected and the referenced DD statement defines an expiration date that matches the ForeignTapesExpdt value, CA Vtape ignores the mount request.

If you write to a VOLSER that matches that of a CA Vtape Virtual Volume, all subsequent mount requests for this VOLSER must use a LABEL=EXPDT value equal to the ForeignTapesExpdt value or CA Vtape will try to intercept the mount request and mount the Virtual Volume instead of the original VOLSER written.

You should define a ForeignTapesExpdt value consistent with that used by the tape management system installed. For example, when mounting a tape that is not controlled by CA 1, you code LABEL=EXPDT=98000 on the DD statement to bypass CA 1 validation. Using the same value for CA Vtape will allow a foreign tape with a VOLSER matching that of a Virtual Volume to be mounted on a non-Virtual Device.

To correct problems you might need to mount a Virtual Volume, but bypass tape management validation. To do this you would set the ForeignTapesExpdt attribute to a value that does not match that of the tape management system and issue the SVTn REFRESH=OPTIONS console command to pick up the change. When you code LABEL=EXPDT=98000 in your JCL, you will bypass the tape management system, but not CA Vtape.

Another way to mount a foreign tape whose VOLSER matches that of a CA Vtape Virtual Volume is to code a unit esoteric or generic that does not contain the Virtual Devices or code a device number that does not belong to CA Vtape. CA Vtapecan only intercept a tape mount when its Virtual Devices are part of the eligible device list associated with the unit esoteric or generic being used or a Virtual Device number is specifically referenced. All other mounts are ignored.