System, method and computer program product for synchronizing data written to tape including writing an index into a data partition so that data can be recovered in case of failure

A method for writing data to tape, comprising:

• at a device having a memory and connected to a tape library over a network connection, reading an index from an index partition of a first tape in the tape library into the memory;
• the device updating the index in the memory whenever a change is made to a file system mounted on the first tape:
• the device causing a first synchronization operation to occur after a predetermined amount of time has passed, after a predetermined condition has been met, or after a predetermined amount of data has been written to a first location on the first tape in the tape library through the file system mounted on the first tape, the first synchronization operation comprising writing an updated index from the memory of the device into a data partition of the first tape wherein the updated index from the memory is not written into the data partition of the first tape if the first synchronization operation is not successful or if the first synchronization operation is not performed;
• writing to a second location any data that has not been successfully written to the first location on the first tape;
• and
• if the updated index from the memory is successfully written into the data partition of the first tape but not the index partition of the first tape, causing a recovery operation to be performed automatically next time the first tape is mounted, the recovery operation comprising updating the index partition of the first tape with the updated index from the data partition of the first tape.

A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions translatable by a processor to perform:

• at a device having a memory and connected to a tape library over a network connection, reading an index from an index partition of a first tape in the tape library into the memory;
• updating the index in the memory whenever a change is made to a file system mounted on the first tape;
• causing a first synchronization operation to occur after a predetermined amount of time has passed, after a predetermined condition has been met, or after a predetermined amount of data has been written to a first location on the first tape in the tape library through the file system mounted on the first tape, the first synchronization operation comprising writing an updated index from the memory of the device into a data partition of the first tape, wherein the updated index from the memory is not written into the data partition of the first tape if the first synchronization operation is not successful or if the first synchronization operation is not performed;
• writing to a second location any data that has not been successfully written to the first location on the first tape;
• and
• if the updated index from the memory is successfully written into the data partition of the first tape but not the index partition of the first tape, causing a recovery operation to be performed automatically next time the first tape is mounted, the recovery operation comprising updating the index partition of the first tape with the updated index from the data partition of the first tape.