Tape Management System
Encyclopedia
A tape management system (TMS) is computer software that manages the usage and retention of computer backup tapes. This may be done as a stand alone function or as part of a broader backup software package.
Mainframe systems such as IBM's zOS do provide some basic support for tape inventory control via the OS Catalog but as cataloging files is optional it is usually required that an additional software package do the following:
These operations are usually achieved by using operating system hooks to intercept file open and close operations.
The role of a tape management system
Tape management systems (TMS) are usually used in conjunction with backup applications and are generally used to manage magnetic tape media that contains backup information and other electronically stored information. Tape management systems are used by organizations to locate, track, and rotate media according to an organizations internal policies as well as government regulations.Stand-alone tape management systems
Stand-alone tape management systems are predominant on mainframe platforms where tape is used as both a backup and base load storage medium.Mainframe systems such as IBM's zOS do provide some basic support for tape inventory control via the OS Catalog but as cataloging files is optional it is usually required that an additional software package do the following:
- Ensure that live tape volumes are not over-written.
- Keep a list of tape volumes that are eligible to be over-written (known as scratch tapes).
- Maintain an online catalog of the location of files written to tape and a list of what files reside on each tape volume.
These operations are usually achieved by using operating system hooks to intercept file open and close operations.
Stand-alone tape management systems
- GFS/AFM
- BrightStore CA-1 (previously known as UCC-1 and CA-1)
- IBM RMM
- Zara
- BMC Control-M/Tape (previously known as Control-T)
- TLMS