I agree,
        Prelabeled taped do NOT make a difference.  Make sure if you label
your own tapes that you check and make sure the label libvol command is
successful.

        I am using 3590 extended length cartridges that we not only labeled,
but also barcoded.  They work great.

Jeff Bach
Home Office Open Systems Engineering
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

WAL-MART CONFIDENTIAL


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Richard Sims [SMTP:rbs AT BU DOT EDU]
        Sent:   Friday, September 14, 2001 7:03 AM
        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        Subject:        Re: TSM and Extended format tapes.

        >How does TSM handles extended length cartridges.  Our biggest
concern is
        >how does TSM track %full for recycle/reclaim processing?

        Nothing special - TSM treats them like any other tape, writing until
it
        finally encounters the end of the tape.  Perspective: Tapes are like
        snowflakes - no two tapes are exactly the same length...and even any
one
        tape can vary in length over time.  Pct Util is just a pure guess
while
        Filling, and gets a true number only when Full.

        >If we decide to use extended length cartridges on a NSM, It has
been
        >recommend we order them pre-labeled.  So we absolutely do not want
to mix
        >extended length with standard length in the mainframe libraries.

        Whether you label them or the vendor labels them, the tapes are the
same.
        I don't see the "a priori" logic of tape labels and mixing in a
library.
        You can keep them separate in different Devclasses if you want, with
        dedicated drives; but there's no problem mixing them, as I think
most of
        us do.  As said above, tape length is utterly variable to begin
with,
        so even in your pre-existing tape pool you in effect already are
mixing
        tapes of varying lengths.  That's the essential nature of tape: it's
        non-deterministic, unlike disk.

           Richard Sims, BU


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