Writing redundant data on tape media

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9502052-B1
Application number	US-201514972151-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 17, 2015
Priority date	Dec 17, 2015
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A request to write a data set to a magnetic tape medium is received. The data set is written in a first write direction of the magnetic tape medium. The data set is written in an opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by one or more computer processors, a request to write a data set to a magnetic tape medium, wherein the data set consists of a first portion and a second portion;
writing, by the one or more computer processors, the first portion of the data set in a first write direction of the magnetic tape medium;
responsive to determining that a tape wrap in the first write direction is complete, writing, by the one or more computer processors, the second portion of the data set in an opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium, whereby at the completion of the tape wrap in the first write direction, the current write direction is changed to the opposite write direction;
writing, by the one or more computer processors, the first portion of the data set in the opposite write direction; and
responsive to determining that a tape wrap in the opposite write direction is complete, writing, by the one or more computer processors, the second portion of the data set in the first write direction, whereby at the completion of the tape wrap in the opposite write direction, the current write direction is changed to the first write direction, and whereby all portions of the entire data set are written in the first write direction and all portions of the entire data set are written in the opposite write direction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data set written in both the first write direction and written in the opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium are of a same generation value.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein further comprising:
writing, by the one or more computer processors, filler data in a write direction of the magnetic tape medium until a respective tape wrap in the write direction is complete.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
writing, by the one or more computer processors, to a cartridge memory to include information that includes at least one of: the first write direction for the data set, a longitudinal position (LPOS) for a first data block of the data set, an LPOS for a last data block the data set, a generation value for the data set; and
reading, by the one or more computer processors, the information from the cartridge memory to identify the opposite write direction to write the data set.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein writing the data set in the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium comprises:
responsive to determining that no data set previously written to the magnetic tape medium has a generation value that is the same as the generation value for the data set requested to be written on the magnetic tape medium, writing, by the one or more computer processors, the data set requested to be written to in the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
writing, by the one or more computer processors, all portions of the entire data set in the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium, wherein each of the all portions of entire data set is written to a unique tape wrap; and
writing, by the one or more computer processors, all portions of the entire data set in the opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium, wherein each of the all portions of the entire data set is written to a unique tape wrap.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data set is a Linear Tape File System (LTFS) index requested to be written to an index partition of the magnetic tape medium.

8. A computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to receive a request to write a data set to a magnetic tape medium, wherein the data set consists of a first portion and a second portion;
program instructions to write the first portion of the data set in a first write direction of the magnetic tape medium;
program instructions to, responsive to determining that a tape wrap in the first write direction is complete, write the second portion of the data set in an opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium, whereby at the completion of the tape wrap in the first write direction, the current write direction is changed to the opposite write direction;
program instructions to write the first portion of the data set in the opposite write direction; and
program instructions to, responsive to determining that a tape wrap in the opposite write direction is complete, write the second portion of the data set in the first write direction, whereby at the completion of the tape wrap in the opposite write direction, the current write direction is changed to the first write direction, and whereby all portions of the entire data set are written in the first write direction and all portions of the entire data set are written in the opposite write direction.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the data set written in both the first write direction and written in the opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium are of a same generation value.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to write filler data in a write direction of the magnetic tape medium until a respective tape wrap in the write direction is complete.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to write to a cartridge memory to include information that includes at least one of: the first write direction for the data set, a longitudinal position (LPOS) for a first data block of the data set, an LPOS for a last data block the data set, a generation value for the data set; and
program instructions to read the information from the cartridge memory to identify the opposite write direction to write the data set.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instruction to write the data set in the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium comprise:
program instructions to, responsive to determining that no data set previously written to the magnetic tape medium has a generation value that is the same as the generation value for the data set requested to be written on the magnetic tape medium, write the data set requested to be written to the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium.

13. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media further comprise:
program instructions to write all portions of the entire data set in the first write direction of the magnetic tape medium, wherein each of the all portions of entire data set is written to a unique tape wrap; and
program instructions to write all portions of the entire data set in the opposite write direction of the magnetic tape medium, wherein each of the all portions of the entire data set is written to a unique tape wrap.

14. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the data set is a Linear Tape File System (LTFS) index requested to be written to an index partition of the magnetic tape medium.

15. A computer system comprising:
one or more computer processors;
one or more computer readable storage media;
program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising:
p

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Hasegawa Tohru
• Iwanaga Masayuki
• Oishi Yutaka

Classifications

• G11B5/584

  for track following on tapes · CPC title

• G11B5/5508

  Control circuits therefor (G11B5/5513 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G11B20/10

  Digital recording or reproducing · CPC title

• G11B5/012

  Recording on, or reproducing or erasing from, magnetic disks (G11B17/00, G11B19/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• G11B27/36 Primary

  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)} · CPC title