US 2015/0092298 A1 · MEDIA AND DRIVE VALIDATION IN A STORAGE LIBRARY

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for validating storage media and/or media drives in a storage library using a hidden drive pool and a non-hidden media pool. For example, a storage library can be instructed to perform media/drive validation (MDV) on a selected pool of physical storage media using a selected pool of drive resources. Embodiments handle the pools so that, at least during performance of MDV, the drive resources in the drive pool are not visible to the host applications, but the storage media is still visible and can still be accessed by the host application. For example, the MDV can be performed in such a way that the host application cannot task a drive being used for validation, but the host application can perform operations on storage media in the media validation pool. Further, some embodiments operate in the context of storage library complex-wide validation pools.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A storage library system comprising:

a plurality of media slots, at least some having tangible storage media disposed therein;
a plurality of media drives that operate to receive the tangible storage medium for reading or writing;
a robotic assembly that operates to ferry the storage media between the media slots and the media drives;
and
at least one processor that operates to communicate with the robotic assembly and at least one host application, and to perform steps comprising:
assigning a selected set of the storage media to a target media pool in a manner that maintains visibility of the selected set of storage media by the at least one host application;
and
assigning a selected set of media drive resources to a target drive resource pool in a manner that hides visibility of the selected set of media drive resources from the at least one host application.

5 more elements

A method for validating storage media and/or media drives in a storage library, the library in communication with at least one host application and comprising a plurality of storage media and a plurality of media drives, the method comprising:

assigning a selected set of storage media from the library to a target media pool in a manner that maintains visibility of the selected set of storage media by the at least one host application;
assigning a selected set of media drive resources from the library to a target drive resource pool in a manner that hides visibility of the selected set of media drive resources from the at least one host application;
instructing the storage library to move at least one of the selected set of storage media to one of the selected set of media drive resources;
and
instructing the one of the selected set of media drive resources to execute a media/drive validation using the at least one of the selected set of storage media.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Media and drive validation in a storage library

Life of this patent

Media and drive validation in a storage library

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20