Abstract: In one embodiment, a method can include notifying, from a mainframe, a virtual tape server that the mainframe is available to accept a job over a virtual tape channel. The method can also include, responsive to receiving at least one job data message of the job, sending, from the mainframe, a job receipt confirmation to the virtual tape server.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method of updating a list of available scratchfiles at a node accessing a filesystem includes determining whether the node should update the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem. If the node should update the list of available scratchfiles of the filesystem, the method updates the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem. In one embodiment, the method may determine whether the list of available scratchfiles on the filesystem should be updated by determining whether another node is currently updating its scratch list for the filesystem. If it is not, then the method may further determine whether the filesystem has added a scratch volume since a previous update of the list of available scratchfiles at the node.

Abstract: Embodiments are described for named mounts in a virtual tape engine (VTE) system. A system maintains a file list of named volumes for each of the VTEs. When named mount requests are received, the system searches the file list for the named volume rather than searching through each of the file systems for each of the VTEs. When the volume name is found on a file list, the VTE for the volume name is identified and the mount request can be completed.