I face exactly this situation and solve it by manually issuing "DEL VOL"
commands for those volumes I want to move to EMPTY before they reach the
end of their pending time.  Pending volumes will go to empty state
"shortly" after the time determined by adding the reuse delay to the
time the volume went pending.  I've generally seen this switch to empty
happen within 15 minutes.

>
> What is the process that changes a volume from pending to empty? Is there some
> way I can "force" it to happen at a certain time (script/schedule)?
> I have volumes that are going from pending to empty on the right day (based on
> REUSEDELAY) but not until about 45 minutes too late. This means that I have to
> wait another day for them to be marked as scratch and returned from offsite
> storage. It is not really a "problem" per se but it is a nuisance.
>


--
Tom Bell                                    tom.bell AT westgeo DOT com
Tom Bell                                    tom.bell AT westgeo DOT com
Western Geophysical                         office:     (713) 689-2203
10001 Richmond, Room 3705                   fax:        (713) 689-2758
Houston, TX  77042                          pager:      (713) 415-0419