>We are in the midst of replacing our existing 3590J cartridges with 3590J
>cartridges that have been (supposedly) upgraded to allow 20/40 gigabyte
>capacity instead of of 10/20 capacity. I can successfully checkin the new
>libvolumes but until they actually get used, I have no way of even guessing
>how much data they can hold. I want to verify that the new 3590J cartridges
>we just bought have really been upgraded to support 20/40 capacity. Is
>there a way to force data to goto my new libvolume? Maybe there is a atape
>(or whatever the AIX command is) command to do this?
>Since we are replacing existing 3590J cartridges that are labeled
>100000-100300 with (supposedly upgraded) 3590J cartridges with the same
>labels, do I have any potential problems in store other than removing a
>libvolume that still has data on it? They will all stay in the same device
>class.
I've never heard of "upgrading a tape cartridge", and would be curious to
have some references to what that's supposed to be about. (It sounds like
something one would be offered in spam.) The way we mortals get more data
on a tape is by upgrading our drives to higher density; or we switch to longer
tapes, such as the 3590K (in concert with drive upgrading to accommodate the
handling of thinner tape).
To prove the existence of magic in this universe you need to perform a case
study: as with any new technology being introduced to your shop, you should
prove its capabilities before putting it into production. If you're a 3590 user
you need to be well acquainted with the "IBM TotalStorage Tape Device Drivers:
Installation and User's Guide" manual (see topic "tapeutil" in ADSM QuickFacts).
Give a tape drive over to the test, turn off tape drive compression, and write
a controlled amount of data to the tape using the tapeutil command, or even an
OS utility like the Unix 'dd' command, trying to fill it according to the
capacity you expect it should hold.
You will need to consider Devclass values according to what you really have
there, which is a mystery to me. There are READMEs and List postings regarding
the handling of drive upgrades vs. existing tapes.
Richard Sims http://people.bu.edu/rbs
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