HP Archive Backup System for OpenVMS Guide to Operations

Overview
2.8 MDMS Objects
2.8.5 Locations
2.8.6 Magazines
2.8.7 Media Types
• The threshold value for free volumes in the jukebox (before a warning is issued)
• The groups and nodes that have direct access to the jukebox, including access via Fibre
Channel
• The state of the jukebox
A location describes the physical location of other objects, and is used as a selection criterion for
allocating drives and volumes, and for placing tape volumes in a specific place. Locations can
exist in a hierarchy, and as such are considered compatible locations for allocation purposes if
locations share a common root in the hierarchy.
Locations only have two attributes:
• Parent location - The parent location in the hierarchy (a location need not have a parent
location)
• Spaces - A range of “spaces” to be used for storing volumes, also optional.
A magazine is a logical object that contains a set of volumes that are to be moved as a group.
Magazines typically relate to a physical magazine that certain jukeboxes require in order to
move volumes in and out of a jukebox (for example, a TZ877 or TLZ9L). However, even for
jukeboxes requiring physical magazines, it is not a requirement to configure MDMS magazines
if you want to treat the movement of the individual volumes independently.
Magazines contain the following attributes:
• Slot count
• Placement
• Jukebox name, start slot or position
• Onsite and offsite locations and dates
When a volume is in a magazine, its placement and associated locations are those of the magazine.
Magazines can be scheduled to move onsite and offsite. In most cases, this means that all
the volumes in the magazine are moved onsite or offsite; the physical magazine itself usually
stays with the jukebox with a new set of volumes.
The use of magazines is not required.
A media type is a logical object that describes certain attributes of tape volume media. Media
types are used as a major selection criterion for drive and volume allocation, and are used to
match volumes with compatible drives. Media types contain the following attributes:
• Density - A density value or keyword that identifies the density of the media. This value
must be one of the keyword values supported by OpenVMS. Density is used in initializing
volumes.
• Compaction - A flag indicating whether compaction is desired on volumes. Setting compaction
usually results in about twice as much data capacity for a tape volume.
• Capacity - The size of the media in MB (not used by MDMS).
• Length - The length of the media in feet (not used by MDMS).
2-10 Overview