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Tivoli Storage Manager classifies its volumes into two categories: private and scratch.
A private volume is a labeled volume that is in use or owned by an application, and may contain valid data. You must define each private volume, and it can only be used to satisfy a request to mount that volume by name. Private volumes do not return to scratch when they become empty. For information on defining volumes, see Defining Storage Pool Volumes. For information on changing the status of a volume in an automated library, see Changing the Status of Automated Library Volumes.
A scratch volume is a labeled volume that is empty or contains no valid data, and can be used to satisfy any request to mount a scratch volume. When data is written to a scratch volume, its status is changed to private, and it is defined as part of the storage pool for which the mount request was made. When valid data is moved from the volume and the volume is reclaimed, the volume returns to scratch status and can be reused by any storage pool associated with the library.
For each storage pool, you must decide whether to use scratch volumes. A scratch volume is selected for a mount request only if scratch volumes are allowed in the storage pool. If you do not use scratch volumes, you must define each volume. Tivoli Storage Manager keeps an inventory of volumes in each automated library it manages and tracks whether the volumes are in scratch or private status. If a storage pool contains scratch volumes, the server can choose a scratch volume from those that have been checked into the library.
Any storage pools associated with the same automated library can dynamically acquire volumes from the library's pool of scratch volumes. You do not need to allocate volumes to the different storage pools. Even if only one storage pool is associated with a library, you do not need to explicitly define all the volumes for the storage pool. Volumes are automatically added to and deleted from the storage pool by the server.
A library's volume inventory includes only those volumes that have been checked into that library. This inventory is not necessarily identical to the list of volumes in the storage pools associated with the library. For example:
For more information on how to check in volumes, see Checking Media into Automated Library Devices.