Move Medium - A5h

The library will attempt to physically move a cartridge from the requested source element to the requested destination. The library will make reasonable attempts to retry this operation within the scope of its capabilities, but if unsuccessful, will try to return the cartridge to its source element. If the source element was a drive, the library will attempt to leave the cartridge in either a storage or I/E element if the configuration supports it (not partitioned in the case of the I/E), otherwise it may remain in the picker. If placement to an alternate slot succeeds, the Move Medium request will report good status, and a Unit Attention 6/2800 will be queued for all initiators to inform of an element status change so that host applications can refresh element status and correct tape cartridge inventory status.

If the library includes towers, any required movement of the towers will be provided automatically by the library.

When the source and destination addresses are the same, the library will still do a full Get and Put, even if it is a drive (data transfer element).

The library will check that the source element is occupied and that the destination element is empty. It will also check for media compatibility between the source and destination elements. Failures in either of these will result in a Check Condition.

Storage, data transfer, and import/export elements can be used as valid source or destination elements. The medium transport element (picker) cannot be a destination element. Depending on library model and configuration, the medium transport element can be a source element to recover a tape cartridge stranded in the medium transport element.

This is the primary command for the library, and should be used to accomplish any media movement within the system. If the library indicates a failure due to element status problems (source empty, destination full, media incompatible, etc.), element status should be re-initialized and re-synchronized. This would apply to both hardware errors and illegal requests.

The MOVE MEDIUM CDB format is shown in the following table.

Table 1: MOVE MEDIUM CDB format

Bit Byte	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
0	Op Code (A5h)
1	Logical Unit Number			Reserved
2	Medium Transport Element Address
3
4	Source Element Address
5
6	Destination Element Address
7
8	Reserved
9
10	Reserved							Invert
11	FO		Control

Field	Description
Medium Transport Element Address	This field contains the address of the Medium Transport element to use for the move. A value of 0001h is the address for all Medium Transport elements, but a value of 0000h is also supported to select the default Medium Transport element.
Source Element Address	This field specifies the element address from where the cartridge is retrieved.
Destination Element Address	This field specifies the element address for where the cartridge is to be placed.
Invert	This field must be set to 0 since the library does not support double-sided media.
Failover (FO)	Set to 0 to indicate no failover sequence identified.