RE: Can I monitor for the switching of tapes?

[Buck Calabro <Buck.Calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Is there a way to monitor when the tapes are being
>switched so we can initialize the tape before
>continuing the backup?

I'm doing a bit of reading between the lines, but it sounds like your tape
handling is the reverse of what I'm used to.  Rather than initialise a tape
at backup time, the tapes should be initialised when they're first
purchased.  They should receive a unique volume ID so you can track the
tape's usage history and rotate it out when it reaches the end of it's life.
That's the utopian view anyway.

Let's look at one scenario: you do daily backups and keep two weeks of tapes
before reusing the first one again.  The backup CL program should specify
the expected volume IDs (can be got from a disk file) and should set the
expiration date 14 days from now.  That way, if your operations staff
accidentally mounts week one tapes in the drive during week two, They get a
message telling them that they have unexpired tapes in the drive.  They can
then hang the correct set.  If the operators did the right thing, the Monday
Week one tapes expire tonight, and are quietly overwritten by the backup.
If they put Tuesday's tapes in, they'll get the "tape not expired message."
The point is that automation should be used to help the operators do the
right thing, and help catch them when their routine is disrupted (like a
holiday Monday.)

Your backup program can be as simple as SAVLIB or as complex as SAVCHGOBJ
and doing OUTPUT(*PRINT) and capturing that data to log what file went on
which volume on what day.  What you need depends on what you're willing to
settle for.  What I think needs to happen in order of priority:
1) Have initialised tapes to hand at all times, even if they have goofy
names like "000000"
2) Make the backup sets expire at the end of their expected life.
3) Give every tape a unique volume ID.
4) Have the backup process use the expected volume IDs.

Certainly, others will have different ideas and the sticky point is that
they may all be right!  That is, you need to weigh what your particular
situation needs when you take advice on backups.