Cartridge identifiers and volume identifiers

Cartridge and volume identifiers are used to label each cartridge so they can be tracked and located in the tape library.

Every cartridge and volume ID can contain the characters A through Z, 0 through 9, $, @, #. Only the first 6 characters are recognized by i5/OS™; therefore, the uniqueness of the cartridge identifier must be within the first 6 characters of the name. The first 6 characters of the cartridge identifier must match the volume identifier for the tape.

Special generated cartridge identifiers exist for the tape libraries that do not have a bar code reader, that are missing the bar code label, or when the bar code reader cannot read the label. These identifiers are as follows:

NLTxxx

Non-Labeled Tape - This cartridge contains data written in non-Standard Tape Label format.

CLNxxx

Cleaning - This cartridge has been identified as a cleaning tape.

BLKxxx

Blank - This cartridge contains no data.

UNKxxx

Unknown - This cartridge was not identifiable.

IMPxxx

Import - Refers to a cartridge that is in an input/output station of the tape library.

SLTxxx

Slot- Refers to the cartridge by slot number. If the device description is created with the GENCTGID parameter set to the *SYSGEN mode then, the cartridges in the tape library inventory appear as SLT xxx where xxx is the slot number.