Lizette is correct - The DLm is essentially just a device that represents tape drives to the mainframe. It needs backend storage, such as a DataDomain or Vmax to actually store the tape data.
When a tape is requested, the mainframe asks the DLm, which "passes through" the request to the backend storage, which then opens a Unix file (in a proprietary data format). It's possible to attach a "real" (or possibly even "REEL") tape drive to the DLm / backend storage, and copy data off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
