Using TAPEINIT to scratch tapes

Products

• VM:Tape for z/VM

Issue/Introduction

Introduction: 

Using TAPEINIT to scratch tapes.

  

Question: 

Can I use VMTAPE TAPEINIT to scratch a batch of tapes?

 

Answer: 

Yes, to scratch a batch of tapes, you can issue VMTAPE TAPEINIT to change their expiration date and prepare them for use as shown here: 

VMTAPE TAPEINIT PRODUCT SERIES 620000 nn (CATONLY USER HIDRO EXPDT ddd/yyyy

for ddd, specify the current day. 

 

After which, run VMTAPE SCRATCH.

You use the SCRATCH command to scratch eligible tapes on CMS systems. 

Eligible tapes are tapes that have expired or that expire today. The SCRATCH command sets the status of these tapes to SCRATCH in the TMC. 

 

Next, run VMTAPE REFRESH. 

 

Additional Information:

All tapes that are specified on this command must already be defined in the TMC and must be marked as DELETED or SCRATCH. If CA VM:Tape cannot initialize one of the tapes, it issues a message and it skips to the next tape. 

By default, CA VM:Tape mounts and labels the tape according to the default specified on the DEFLABEL configuration record. If you only want to update information in the TMC, specify the CATONLY option.

 

Environment

Release: VMTAPE55400-2-VM:Tape
Component: