Reclaiming Space on High-Capacity Tapes with VTCS Dynamic Reclaim

With the introduction of higher-capacity tape drives, Oracle’s StorageTek Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) stores thousands of gigabytes of data as individual datasets on virtual volumes, which are then stacked onto multi-volume cartridges, often with different expiration dates.  Over time, these tapes become fragmented.  To reclaim the space, the tape has to be mounted on a tape drive and current datasets recalled back into the virtual tape buffer and then re-migrated out to a new tape.  This requires high cycle time on tape drives and reduces the effective capacity of the virtual tape buffer.  Learn about Dynamic Reclaim, which is a new VTCS feature that works with Oracle’s StorageTek T10000B and T10000C series tape drives to allow dynamic reclamation of non-current space on tapes without any movement of data.  There is no mount required and no tape drive usage necessary during Dynamic Reclaim, which results in significant time and resource savings, and eliminates the need to schedule tape reclamation at a quiet time in order to run "traditional" reclaim.