Recovery from medium error on tape on which data and metadata are to be stored by using medium to medium data copy

• US 8,516,297 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2012
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Iwasaki, Norie, Morton, David Michael, Mou, Yun, Ostasiewski, Laura Jean, Sohda, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LOAN
• Application Number:
  US13/482,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 448 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6.1, 714/30, 714/6.32, 711/114
• US Class Current: 714/6.1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A copy export application implemented in a computational device receives a request to perform a copy export operation of data and metadata to a selected tape in a tape library coupled to the computational device. The copy export application copies the data from the computational device to the selected tape. The copy export application determines a medium error on the selected tape while copying the metadata from the computational device to the selected tape, subsequent to completion of the copying of the data from the computational device to the selected tape. The copy export application sends a request to a tape control application to replace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from the selected tape to the new tape. The copy export application copies the metadata to the new tape.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining a medium error on a tape while copying metadata to the tape, subsequent to completion of copying of data to the tape;

sending a request to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

copying the metadata to the new tape.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising performing by a tape control application implemented in a computational device:

receiving the request from a copy export application;

performing a tape to tape move of the data from the tape to the new tape;

ejecting the tape;

replacing the tape with the new tape; and

sending a volume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application.

3. The method of claim 2, the method further comprising:

determining, by the copy export application, whether the volume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount of time, in response to sending a request to the tape control application to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

performing the copying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the new tape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has been received within the predetermined amount of time.

4. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

indicating, by the copy export application, a failure of the copy export operation, in response to determining that the volume serial number has not been received within the predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the data is customer data, wherein customer data is data that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer;

the metadata is a database to manage the customer data; and

a copy export operation is successful only in response to both the customer data and the database being transferred from a computational device to a single tape.

6. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor performs operations, the operations comprising;

determining a medium error on a tape while copying metadata to the tape, subsequent to completion of copying of data to the tape;

sending a request to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

copying the metadata to the new tape.

7. The system of claim 6, the operations further comprising performing by a tape control application:

receiving the request from a copy export application;

performing a tape to tape move of the data from the tape to the new tape;

ejecting the tape;

replacing the tape with the new tape; and

sending a volume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application.

8. The system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

determining, by the copy export application, whether the volume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount of time, in response to sending a request to the tape control application to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

performing the copying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the new tape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has been received within the predetermined amount of time.

9. The system of claim 8, the operations further comprising:

indicating, by the copy export application, a failure of the copy export operation, in response to determining that the volume serial number has not been received within the predetermined amount of time.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the data is customer data, wherein customer data is data that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer;

the metadata is a database to manage the customer data; and

a copy export operation is successful only in response to both the customer data and the database being transferred from a computational device to a single tape.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to perform operations, the operations comprising;

determining a medium error on a tape while copying metadata to the tape, subsequent to completion of copying of data to the tape;

sending a request to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

copying the metadata to the new tape.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, the operations further comprising performing by a tape control application implemented in a computational device:

receiving the request from a copy export application;

performing a tape to tape move of the data from the tape to the new tape;

ejecting the tape;

replacing the tape with the new tape; and

sending a volume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

determining, by the copy export application, whether the volume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount of time, in response to sending a request to the tape control application to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

performing the copying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the new tape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has been received within the predetermined amount of time.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

indicating, by the copy export application, a failure of the copy export operation, in response to determining that the volume serial number has not been received within the predetermined amount of time.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein:

the data is customer data, wherein customer data is data that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer;

the metadata is a database to manage the customer data; and

a copy export operation is successful only in response to both the customer data and the database being transferred from a computational device to a single tape.

16. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computational device, wherein the code in combination with the computational device performs operations, the operations comprising:

determining a medium error on a tape while copying metadata to the tape, subsequent to completion of copying of data to the tape;

sending a request to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

copying the metadata to the new tape.

17. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 16, the operations further comprising performing by a tape control application implemented in a computational device:

receiving the request from a copy export application;

performing a tape to tape move of the data from the tape to the new tape;

ejecting the tape;

replacing the tape with the new tape; and

sending a volume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application.

18. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

determining, by the copy export application, whether the volume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount of time, in response to sending a request to the tape control application to replace the tape by a new tape and copy the data from the tape to the new tape; and

performing the copying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the new tape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has been received within the predetermined amount of time.

19. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

indicating, by the copy export application, a failure of the copy export operation, in response to determining that the volume serial number has not been received within the predetermined amount of time.

20. The method for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 16, wherein:

the data is customer data, wherein customer data is data that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer;

the metadata is a database to manage the customer data; and

a copy export operation is successful only in response to both the customer data and the database being transferred from a computational device to a single tape.