Defining a 3590 Device Class

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

Device Class Name

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

Mount Limit

Enter the maximum number of tape volumes that can be simultaneously mounted for the device class.

Mount Wait Period

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

Mount Retention Period

Enter the amount of time, in minutes, to retain an idle tape volume before dismounting it.

Tape Volume Prefix

Enter the high level qualifier of the file name that the server writes into the tape labels. For each sequential access volume assigned to this device class, the server uses this prefix to create the file name.

Maximum Capacity

Enter the maximum amount of data the server can store in the volumes categorized by this device class. This parameter is optional. The default is 0.

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

K Kilobyte.
M Megabyte
G Gigabyte

Estimated Capacity

Enter the estimated capacity for the volumes categorized by this device class.

If a value other than 0 was specified for the Maximum Capacity, this value is ignored.

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 Format heading.

Expiration

Enter the expiration date that is placed on the tape labels for this device class, which are used for allocation. This parameter is optional. The default is 99365. Possible values are:

yyddd Specifies the expiration date for this device class in YYDDD format.
yyyyddd Specifies the expiration date for this device class in YYYYDDD format.

Format

Enter the tape format. This parameter is optional. The default is 3590C.

Note: This format uses the tape drive hardware compression feature. Depending on the effectiveness of compression, the actual capacity may be greater than the listed value.

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.

3590B 10.0GB Uncompressed (basic) format
3590C See note above.

20.0GB

Compressed format

Display

Enter what you want shown on the tape drive display. This parameter is optional. The default value is ALTERNATE.

Possible values are:

ALTERNATE Specifies the tape drive to display the volume serial number (volser), alternating with "the server" on the tape drive.
VOLSER Specifies the tape drive to display only the volume serial number (volser) of the tape on the tape drive.