Getting Started › Enhanced Device Support

Enhanced Device Support

When running CA VM:Tape in a mixed tape device environment, Enhanced Device Recognition (EDR) support 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 3490-type and 3590-type devices, these devices probably use proprietary media. In many cases, CP RDEV block information alone cannot supply the distinction between these devices. EDR support in CA VM:Tape 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.

EDR support in CA VM:Tape uses the CA 1 defined TMC density and media values. This ensures consistency when sharing the TMC with CA 1 on z/OS. The Generic/Enhanced TMC Density and Media Values table contains the DENSITY and MEDIA value settings necessary for NOEDRSUP or EDRSUP mode.

Note: EDR support is also available in CA VM:Backup. If you also use CA VM:Backup, see that documentation library for the additional configuration steps necessary to implement EDR support in CA VM:Backup.