Administrative application programming interface and administrative API response, languages for communicating between OpenVault administrative applications and the media library manager (MLM) server.
A machine-readable representation of a physical cartridge label (PCL).
A laser-optical reader that scans a barcode and then uses logic to translate from a scanned barcode to a human-readable representation, such as volume serial number.
A physical grouping of slots in a common unit of housing where cartridges are stored. Usually a bay contains storage locations for cartridges, optional drives, and one or more
transfer agents to move cartridges around.
A cartridge is the unit of physical operation and management within a library. A cartridge contains one or more pieces of media, and has a certain form factor. The most common forms of cartridge are for magnetic tape and laser- or magneto-optical disk.
Client application programming interface and client API response, languages for communicating between OpenVault client applications and the media library manager (MLM) server.
A magnetic or optical device for accessing media inside a cartridge mounted in a slot.
The mediator between OpenVault applications and library or drive control programs.
A region on the recording surface of a piece of media that has a physical beginning and ending that can be accessed by a drive. Typically, each piece of media has a single partition, which spans the entire recordable surface of the media. However, there are drives that support partitioning of this recordable surface, such as DDS2 and D2 tape, such that a single piece of media may contain multiple partitions.
Some form of identification on the outside of the cartridge, as opposed to being stored on media inside the cartridge. A PCL may contain a machine-readable label (barcode), but it must also contain a human-readable text portion.
A door or opening where cartridges may be inserted into or removed from the library.
A robotic device (usually) with storage slots and drives for accessing multiple cartridges.
For tape cartridges containing one piece of recording media, with all recording surfaces accessible when loaded in a drive, the cartridge contains one side. For a multi-sided cartridge, access to a side requires that the cartridge be mounted in a drive with a particular orientation (for side A of optical disk, the cartridge must be positioned for mount with side A up).
A storage location for a cartridge, with a form factor that determines which kinds of cartridges it can hold.
A persistent table associated with a single library. For each cartridge contained by that library, this table maps the physical cartridge label (PCL) to a slot within the library.