1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

Allocate: To reserve an RSM resource for exclusive use by a particular client. See also Deallocate.

application pool: A group of media in an RSM system that is specific to a particular client. Each client that uses media managed by the RSM server uses one or more application pools.

Bar Code: A device-readable physical label that is attached to a physical medium.

Bar Code Reader: A device capable of reading a bar code and transmitting the information encoded on it. A label with a bar code is attached to the outside of a cartridge. The labels are designed to be both human-readable and computer-readable. Libraries that hold media with bar codes attached may have a bar code reader. There is only one reader per library, which is usually mounted on the transport.

Cartridge: A unit of physical media on which information can be stored. Cartridges come in various types, including 8-mm tape, magnetic disks, optical disks, and CD-ROMs. Some cartridges have multiple sides.

Changer: An automated mechanical device capable of mounting new media without human intervention.

Cleaner: A special cartridge that cleans the read/write head.

Deallocate: To free up a previously allocated RSM resource, allowing it to be used by or allocated to any future client.

Decommission: To take physical media out of use.

Dismount: To move physical media from a drive to a library slot.

Door: A means to gain unconstrained access to the physical media in a library. When the door is open, an administrator can add and remove media from the library. See also Inject/Eject Port.

drive: A device that can read or write to a cartridge. A library has at least one drive.

Eject: To move a cartridge out of an RSM system. Ejections are done through a door or an inject/eject (IE) port. See also Inject.

endpoint: A network-specific address of a remote procedure call (RPC) server process for remote procedure calls. The actual name and type of the endpoint depends on the RPC protocol sequence that is being used. For example, for RPC over TCP (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_ip_tcp), an endpoint might be TCP port 1025. For RPC over Server Message Block (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_np), an endpoint might be the name of a named pipe. For more information, see [C706].

Free Pool: A group of media in an RSM system that is freely available to any application. Media in a free pool is blank. An application can draw on media from a free pool when it needs additional media, and it can return media that it no longer needs to the free pool.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

import: The process of creating a conglomeration or partition on a COMA server based on modules and configurations extracted from an installer package file.

Import Pool: Media newly placed into the library that are sorted by media type. For instance, if an administrator placed a tape written by backup on one system into a library attached to a second system, the instance of RSM on the second system recognizes that the tape was written using Microsoft Tape Format (MTF) and places it in the proper media type import pool.

Inject: To move a cartridge into an RSM system. Injection is done through a door or an IE port. See also Eject.

Inject/Eject (IE) Port: A means to gain constrained access to the physical media in a library. Media added to a library through an IE port are not placed directly into a slot, but are instead placed in the IE port, whereupon the library uses the transport to move the media from the IE port to a slot. IE ports are also known as mailslots. See also Door.

Inventory: The act of cataloguing all the physical media in an RSM system.

Library: A storage device that contains one or more tape drives, a number of slots to hold tape cartridges, and an automated method for loading tapes.

Library Request: A request from an application for an operation to be performed on a library.

Logical Media: A set of data independent of the physical media it is recorded on. Logical media are tracked using logical media identifiers (LMID). Because access to the data occurs only through the LMID, RSM can manage the physical location of the data. For example, if the original cartridge begins to fail, RSM can move the data to a new cartridge without having to notify the application.

Magazines: See Slots.

Media Identifier: A unique value that identifies a particular piece of media.

Mount: To move physical media from a library slot to a drive.

Offline Library: State of library in which it is not usable for client. The library is marked as offline library on client request or when it is disconnected from the server.

On-Media Identifier (OMID): An electronically recorded label used to uniquely identify a side of a medium in an RSM system.

Operator Request: A request for a person (often an administrator, but possibly a user) to perform a task.

Physical Media: The tangible media that are inserted into and removed from libraries and mounted in drives.

port: A place to add or remove physical media from a library.

remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message).  For more information, see [C706].

Robotic: Done by mechanical means, without human intervention.

Side: An area on a physical medium that can store data. Although most physical media have only a single side, some may have two sides. For instance, a magneto-optic (MO) disk has two sides: an "A" side and a "B" side. When an MO disk is placed in a drive with the "A" side up, the "A" side is accessible and the "B" side is not. To access the "B" side, the disk must be inserted with the "B" side up. The data stored on different sides of the same physical medium are independent of one another.

Slot: A storage location within a library. For example, a tape library has one slot for each tape that the library can hold. A stand-alone drive library has no slots. Most libraries have at least four slots. Sometimes slots are organized into collections of slots called magazines. Magazines are usually removable.

System Pools: The default media pools present in an RSM system. The free pool, the import pool, and the unrecognized pool are called system pools.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

universally unique identifier (UUID): A 128-bit value. UUIDs can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects in cross-process communication such as client and server interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and RPC objects. UUIDs are highly likely to be unique. UUIDs are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and these terms are used interchangeably in the Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the UUID. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] must be used for generating the UUID.

Unrecognized Pool: A group of media in an RSM that is not cataloged and is unreadable by the RSM. When a cartridge is placed in a library, the RSM tries to identify it. If it has not seen this particular medium before and is unable to determine its format or the application that last wrote data on it, the RSM places the cartridge in the unrecognized pool for its media type. Blank media are treated this way.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.