IBM Tape Manager for z/VM V1.3

Tape Manager for z/VM from IBM Corp. provides functions to manage tape volumes and tape devices on z/VM systems, including:

• Access control for your tape volumes
• Resource monitoring, alerting you when scratch tapes are getting low
• Retention management for tape volumes
• Data Security Erase support for tapes containing sensitive data
• Management of tape devices, both manual mount and library mounts for volumes located in an Automated Tape Library (ATL) or Virtual Tape Server (VTS)
• Support for dynamically sharing tape devices across z/VM and non-z/VM systems

Tape Manager for z/VM V1.3 offers:

• Enhanced tape management for customers with multiple z/VM systems in one geographic location. By setting up one ‘catalog node’ to manage all of the tape volumes for one physical location, you can create multiple ‘request nodes’ that share the same catalog of tape volumes and tape devices. You no longer need to allocate a specific range of tape volumes to each z/VM system.
• Standardized access control through RACF for z/VM or an External Security Manager (ESM). You can now use RACF or other ESM to control access to pools of tape volumes, supporting central management of system security. For those not using RACF or an ESM, you can continue to use the product-specific access control methods provided in previous releases of Tape Manager.
• Additional hardware support, specifically StorageTek devices.
• Usability enhancements.

Key prerequisites:
z/VM V5.3, z/VM V5.4, or z/VM V6.1

Planned availability date:
September 10, 2010