Managing tapes

When a tape is introduced for the first time in a data center, it is free. Before a volume can be used for the first time it must be initialized.

When an application requests a volume, it is reserved. A volume is not available for other applications as long as a reservation exists.

Once the expiration date has been reached, a tape can be released again. Before it may be used again by another application it has to be reinitialized. When a tape is reserved, it can be exported to remote data center.