Re: Can TSM data tapes be read by other programs?

It's been a while since I actually looked at the content of a TSM tape,
so I may be mis-remembering here -- but it looked to me like TSM writes
ANSI-standard multiple-file tape volumes.

There's a VOL1 label with the tape volser in it, and an HDR1 label
(IIRC) for each file; the 'filename' field of the HDR1 looked to have a
tsm database record number instead of a file name. And then the data,
just as it came from the client -- compressed if the client compressed
it, encrypted if the client encrypted it, or plain ol' raw ASCII if
that's the way it comes across.

So any text fields in your Oracle database (for example) will be
readable -- names, addresses, phone numbers, SSN's, whatever.

Then a tape mark, another HDR1, and another file.

VOL1 and HDRx records are ANSI-standard 80-character unblocked. (Wasn't
ADSM V1, or it's predicessor, a mainframe package?)

And, of course, copypool tapes will match the original storagepool tapes
-- just straight copies of the data, no other fancy magic.

Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Tae Kim
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:58 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Can TSM data tapes be read by other programs?

Hi guys,

TSM version 5.2 running on AIX 5.2

To my understanding, data TSM writes on tapes can not be used because it
does not have any meta data associated with the data that  is on tape.
Is
this true?  would it be possible, for example, if a copypool tape is
lost
during transit that the data on that can be read? does TSM encrypt the
data that is on tape?

TIA!
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