System and method to guarantee overwrite of expired data in a virtual tape server

摘要

A system and method for guaranteeing overwrite of expired data in a media device, the data being organized according to logical units provided on media devices organized as physical volumes. The method comprises the steps of: maintaining information associated with a status of a physical volume, and updating a physical volume's status information based upon a combination of that volume's prior status and that volume's current status; specifying a time duration that expired logical unit data may remain on a physical volume; based upon the volume's updated status information, determining whether a selected volume has expired data longer than the specified time duration; and, overwriting contents of the volume having data that has expired longer than the specified time duration.