Re: Tape initialization during backup

I forget, but I seem to remember less than favorable results from relying
upon that. We keep several initialized tapes lying around now.

All tapes have their own volume id. Really helps with PRTERRLOG
TYPE(*VOLSTAT). When you start using libraries and BRMS it is critical
that all tapes have their own volume id. Relying upon something like
replying INZ to a command is unusable in our realm.

And, since we are using libraries instead of simple tape drives we keep
more in the library than we'll need. And let BRMS take care of it.
ANYTHING that writes to a tape is done with BRMS.

Prior to BRMS we would ignore expiration dates and initialize tapes as
part of our nightly backup. Now we only initialize new tapes or tapes
that are being retired with a CLEAR(*YES).

Rob Berendt