Defining a Cartridge Device Class

To define a device class, first complete the following fields and then click Finish, or click Cancel to end this task.

Device Class Name

Enter the name of the device class to be defined. This parameter is required. The maximum length of the device class name is 30 characters.

Recording Format

Select an option. This parameter is optional. The default is Drive.

Note: Actual capacities may vary depending on which cartridges and drives are used.

Format Estimated Capacity Description
Drive Determined by drive capacity. The server selects the highest format that is supported by the drive on which a volume is mounted.

Avoid specifying DRIVE when a mixture of drives is used within the same library.

For example, do not use this option for a library containing some drives that support recording formats superior to other drives.

3480 180MB

18-track basic recording format (CST)

3480XF 180MB 18-track compressed recording format (CST)
3490B See note above.

360MB

720MB

36-track

Uncompressed (basic) recording format (CST)

Compressed recording format (ECCST)

3490C See note above.

360MB

720MB

36-track

Uncompressed (basic) recording format (CST)

Compressed recording format (ECCST)

Library Name

Select the name of the defined library object that contains the Cartridge Tape drives used by this device class.

Mount Limit

Enter the maximum number of volumes that can be simultaneously mounted for the device class. The default is Drives.

The following are possible values:

Drives Specifies that the server determines the mount limit based on the number of drives defined and online in the library.
number Specify the maximum number of drives used concurrently. This value can be any number from 0 to 256.

This value must not be allowed to exceed the number of drives defined and online in the library.

For external libraries, specify the number of drives for the library.

0 The value of zero prevents new transactions from gaining access to the storage pool.

Mount Retention Period

Enter a number, in minutes, for the maximum amount of time to retain an idle volume before dismounting it. This parameter is optional.

Tape Volume Prefix

Enter the high level qualifier of the file name that the server writes into the sequential access media labels. This parameter is optional. For each sequential access volume assigned to this device class, the server uses this parameter to create the data set name.

Estimated Capacity

Enter the estimated capacity for the volumes assigned to this device class. This parameter is optional.

You can specify this parameter if the default estimated capacity for the device class is inaccurate due to compression of data.

The value must be an integer followed by one of these units:

K Kilobyte
M Megabyte
G Gigabyte

For more information on the default estimated capacity, see the Recording Format heading.

Mount Wait Period

Enter a number for the maximum length of time, in minutes, to wait for a volume to be mounted.