Virtual Device Engine › Virtual Volume CA Tape Encryption Interface

Virtual Volume CA Tape Encryption Interface

Any tape, virtual or physical, can be encrypted with CA Tape Encryption. If encryption is activated system-wide for all tapes, CA Vtape Virtual Volumes will be encrypted when written by the applications and encrypted again when Externalized. Being encrypted twice does not cause read or write problems for the application or for CA Vtape. Double encryption does mean that additional system resources were used to encrypt data that was already encrypted.

To prevent double encryption, an interface to CA Tape Encryption is available. The interface is activated by the AllowBTEencryptionForVVE attribute in the DynamicOptions Section of the CA Vtape VTPARMS parmlib member.

Note: For a detailed description of this attribute, see the chapter “The Parameter Library (PARMLIB).”

When activated, the interface may prevent Virtual Volumes from being encrypted when they are written by the applications. It will not prevent the Virtual Volumes from being encrypted when they are Externalized.