Logical block protection for tape interchange

摘要

A two part process is used for modifying records to be written and retrieved from tape devices. A record is appended with a cyclic redundancy check and a string of zeros. Submitting the entire record to tape drives which are logical block protection enabled will result in no change. For drives that are not LBP enabled, the string of zeros at the end of the record is removed. In addition to determining whether a drive is LBP compliant, a determination may be made as to whether a drive is a linear tape open drive from a particular manufacturer. Linear tape open drives may behave similarly as drives which may not be enabled with logical block protection.

主权项

1. A method for reading data from a tape drive, the method comprising:
causing a record from a plurality of records stored on a tape inserted in a first tape drive to be read, each record from the plurality of records having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and an appended field of zeros, wherein the first tape drive does not support logical block protection (LBP) and removes the field of zeros appended to the record after insertion of the tape into the first tape drive and before transmitting the record and CRC to a data storage manager; appending zeros to the end of the received record after reading the record at the data storage manager; utilizing the CRC to check for data errors in the received record at the data storage manager; causing the tape to be moved to a second tape drive that supports LBP in response to instructions rendered by an application at the data storage manager; and causing the record to be read from the plurality of records at the second tape drive, wherein the data read at the second tape drive includes the record, the CRC, and the appended field of zeros.