Exporting Tape Cartridges from an OSVault-Managed Tape Library

This posting is meant to just outline the steps you must follow to export an infrequently-used tape cartridge from your tape library that you wish to store on the shelf.  That shelf-stored (absent) tape cartridge is then not accessible for restoring files, but you will get notified if it is required.

Selecting a Tape To Export
Obviously, you probably don't want to export a tape cartridge that is used frequently.  If you export a tape cartridge that is needed by the system, the request for the file on that tape cartridge will get an error and you will need to do some manual steps to rectify the situation.
There is  a report called "Offline Media Report that will try to find "copy2" volume-group media to export, and also to tell you the least recently used tape cartridge media.  You can run the report by clicking the "Run Now" button as shown below.  The click the "Reports" menu icon to reload the page and look for your report in the "View Reports" side menu.

In the report, select a tape you wish to export.  Then proceed to the next step.

Exporting a Tape
First, don't just open the library and pull a tape out.  OSVault won't know what you did and will have a real problem correcting the situation.  You should use the "Media" menu icon and click the Label button of the tape you wish to export, such as tape A00425L4 in the example below.

Once you click on the tape button, another web-browser window will open with the tape cartridge information.   Just click the "Export Volume" to move the tape cartridge into the I/E slot (sometimes called the I/O slot) of the library.  This will also mark the media as "absent" in the OSVault database, so that requests for files only on that tape cartridge will be returned as an error, and the "Export Media Requests" subwindow will be able to display the status (that the cartridge needs to be imported).

Once you click on that button, the tape cartridge will be in the library import/export slot.  You can then open that slot (how you do this depends on the library model) and remove the tape.

Importing A Shelf Tape Cartridge Back Into the Library
Importing a absent tape cartridge is relatively simple.   You just put the cartridge you desire to import back into the Import/Export slot of the tape library, then go to the "Media" menu icon screen, click on the tape volume you just put into the I/E slot, and then click "Import Volume".  OSVault will then go to the import/export slot, verify that the correct tape is there, then move it to an open storage slot and change the database to show that the tape is now "resident".   Keep in mind that there must be at least one empty storage slot in the library to move the tape to, and that empty storage slot can't be the one that was just used by a tape that is presently in the drive.

What If You Don't Want to Export The Least Recently Used Volume
In some cases, you might have a directory that is all in one volume group and you want to export those tapes that have those files, since you won't be reading them again for a while.  In that case, use the  "File Location Report" option in the Report menu icon screen to get a full list of all files and what tapes they are on.  You can then use your browser tools to locate the files you wish and get a list of the tapes they are on, then export those tape cartridges using the above steps.

How Do I Know If A File is Requested From An Absent Tape Cartridge
There is a browser window you can open that updates continually, and will print out a requested "absent" tape cartridge label when needed.  The following shows what that screen looks like.  You open that browser window by clicking the "Export Media Requests" button on the "Media" screen.