Product Components › Typical Mount Scenario › Drive Allocation

Drive Allocation

During initialization, CA VM:Tape reads DEVICE records in the VMTAPE CONFIG file to construct a drive list. All the tape drives defined to CA VM:Tape constitute the device list.

CA VM:Tape determines whether the drives are controlled by an ARM or are stand-alone units:

• If the drives are controlled by an ARM, CA VM:Tape gives those drives a unique location name. For more information about how CA VM:Tape processes mount requests for saved tapes and scratch tapes with a specific ARM product, see the appropriate appendix:
  • SUTMYN Automated Tape Library
  • StorageTek Nearline Automated Cartridge System
  • IBM Tape Library Data Server
• If the drives are stand-alone units, CA VM:Tape assigns the location name NONARM. Mount, allocate and reserve requests are processed as described in the following paragraphs.

Note: By default, CA VM:Tape allocates drives using a round-robin algorithm, which promotes uniform drive usage. CA VM:Tape keeps track of the last drive allocated for each location to determine which drive to allocate next. You can override this default behavior using the CA VM:Tape ALLOCATE EXIT.