Technical data

Managing Peripheral Devices
8.9 Managing Tape Drives
8.9 Managing Tape Drives
When managing tape drives, perform the following tasks:
Task For More Information
Get information about tape drives Section 8.9.1
Change tape drive characteristics Section 8.9.2
For information about managing volumes on tape drives, see Section 9.2.
For information about managing Fibre Channel tape devices, see Guidelines for
OpenVMS Cluster Configurations.
8.9.1 Getting Magnetic Tape Device Information
You can enter the SHOW DEVICES command to find available magnetic drives
on your system. The SHOW DEVICES/FULL command enables you to retrieve
additional information about the characteristics of a particular magnetic tape
device.
8.9.2 Modifying Magnetic Tape Device Characteristics
Use the DCL command SET MAGTAPE to define the default characteristics
associated with a specific magnetic tape device for subsequent file operations.
The device must not be currently allocated to any other user.
The following examples illustrate uses of the SET MAGTAPE command in
conjunction with the MOUNT command.
Examples
1.
$ MOUNT MTB1:/FOREIGN
$ SET MAGTAPE MTB1:/DENSITY=800
> The MOUNT command mounts a tape on the MTB1: device. The
/FOREIGN qualifier indicates that the tape is not in the standard format
used by the operating system. For example, certain Backup utility (BACKUP)
operations require you to mount a tape with the /FOREIGN qualifier.
The SET MAGTAPE command defines the density at 800 bpi for writing to
the magnetic tape. (The density is reset only if the magnetic tape has never
been written before.)
2.
$ MOUNT MTA0:/FOREIGN
$ SET MAGTAPE MTA0:/SKIP=FILES:4
The MOUNT command mounts a foreign magnetic tape on the MTA0: device;
the SET MAGTAPE command directs the I/O subsystem to position the
magnetic tape to skip four files.
3.
$ MOUNT MTA1:/FOREIGN
$ SET MAGTAPE/REWIND MTA1:
The MOUNT command mounts a foreign tape on the MTA1: device; the SET
MAGTAPE/REWIND command rewinds the volume.
8–38 Managing Peripheral Devices