System Programmer Reference › Managing Tape and DASD Resources › Enhanced Device Recognition Support

Enhanced Device Recognition Support

When running CA VM:Backup in a mixed tape device environment, EDRSUP enables you to manage media types required, and the recording formats used by these devices:

• If your site uses a mixture of IBM 3490 and 3590 devices with STK devices that emulate 3490 or 3590 devices, these devices use media that is not interchangeable. In many cases, CP RDEV block information alone cannot supply the distinction between these devices. EDRSUP in CA VM:Backup enables you to manage these devices by specifically identifying each one, and the media types it can use.
• If your site uses a mixture of IBM 3590, 3590E, and 3590H devices or a mixture of STK devices where some emulate 3490 devices and some emulate 3590 devices, a complexity is introduced when working with the different media recording formats. With these devices, you can support not only different media types, but different recording formats within a media type. Additionally, the media's format at any point depends on the tape device that last initialized the media.

Note: If you are using CA VM:Tape running EDRSUP with CA VM:Backup, then CA VM:Backup must also run with EDRSUP. Whether you are using CA VM:Backup alone or interfaced with CA VM:Tape, using EDRSUP positions your site for easy connection to new hardware.

For the additional configuration steps necessary to implement EDR support in CA VM:Tape, see the CA VM:Tape System Administration Guide.

Tape Drives, Media, Density Names, and TMC Values

This section contains tables for all tape drives supported by VM:Manager Suite. The tables list the media that each drive supports, along with the density names and TMC TRTCH and density values for the media.

The IBM 3480 is an exception. The table here refers to the 3480 tape cartridge, which either IBM 3480 or 3490E drives can read. Similarly, some later Oracle StorageTek drives can read the StorageTek 4480 cartridge.

For CA VM:Tape, the default density for any media is the lowest density on the earliest device that supports the media. This default density is underlined in the tables. The order of use is increased density on the device, then the lowest density on the next oldest device, and so on. For more information, see the section on the DEFDENS configuration file record in the CA VM:Tape Administration Guide.