The VSE VTAPE Server provides the server part of the VSE Virtual Tape functionality. It is part of the VSE e-business connectors component (5686-CF9-35 and 5686-CF9-38). A virtual tape is typically represented by a file in AWSTAPE format, which can be either a VSE/VSAM file or a file on any Java-enabled platform.
Supported tape image formats
To access a tape image file its file name must be specified at the VTAPE START command on z/VSE. If you specify only the file name (without a path) the z/VSE VTAPE Server tries to open the tape image file in the current directory. If the tape image file resides in a different directory of your file system, you have to specify the full file path (including driver letter, etc.)
Note: Filenames are case sensitive on Unix or Linux.
The z/VSE VTAPE Server supports the following Tape image formats:
- AWSTAPE format
- Binary PTF format (binary PTF data with LRECL 80)
- FakeTape format (used/created by FLEXES)
- Zipped AWSTAPE format
- Zipped PTF format
- Zipped FakeTape format
- ZLIB Compressed AWSTAPE format
- RLE Compressed AWSTAPE format (used/created by TapeStream)
Note: "FLEXES" and "FakeTape" are trademarks of "Fundamental Software, Inc" and "TapeStream" is a trademarks of "Fischer International Systems Corporation".
In general, tape images are binary files. One single file contains the data of a complete tape, including all files and tape marks of a tape.
Tivoli Storage Manager support
To backup z/VSE data to a Tivoli Storage Manager server, you need to have a TSM Client installed and configured. The VTAPE Server uses the TSM command line Backup/Archive client (baclient) DSMC.
To backup z/VSE data to a TSM server, you need to specify the following filename at the VTAPE START command (all in one line):
VTAPE START,UNIT=cuu,LOC=ip-addr,FILE="TSM:filename(mode,optionset,fromdate,fromtime)"
All VTAPE file names that are prefixed with "TSM:" are handled by the TSMAction exit. All file names that do not begin with TSM are not handled by the TSMAction exit and are left unchanged. Additional options can be specified in brackets after the filename. For details please see the online HTML documentation that comes with the VTAPE Server package.
At VTAPE START time the tape image will be restored or retrieved (dependent on the mode) from the TSM server into a temporary directory (only if you do not specify SCRATCH). z/VSE VTAPE will then work with this copy of the tape image. AT VTAPE STOP time, the tape image will be backed up or archived (dependent on the mode) to the TSM server (only if you do not specify READ).
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