+widget CLAIM Select a drive from the "Drives Available" list for use. A drive must be claimed before it can be acted on by other commands. A drive that has been claimed is said to be in the "allocated" state. To claim a drive choose one from the "Drives Available" list and click on the "Claim" button. The selected drive will be allocated to this experiment and will appear in the "Drives Claimed" list. +widget FREE Select a drive from the "Drives Claimed" list to be released. A claimed drive can be freed by selecting it from the "Claimed" list and clicking on the "Free" button. It is only possible to free a drive that is in the allocated state. +widget INIT Prepare tape/drive for use. Write volume labels on tape to ANSI standard. This function is normally only used if you require your tapes to have ANSI labels. However it also allows the selection of non default tape densities and so may be useful for unlabelled tapes. A tape in an allocated drive can be initialised by choosing one of the items from the "Initialise" menu. Clicking the right mouse button on the menu button selects the choice to initialise a new tape. All the initialise choices bring up a popup window. Enter a volume name for the tape and the existing volume name for a tape that is being reinitialised. Then click on the "Initialise" button in the popup window. By default the tape will be mounted after it has been initialised; if this is not wanted click on the "Mount" tick box to remove the the tick. If the default values for labelling, density etc are not required use the "Custom" menu choice. This displays a window that allows control over these parameters. +widget MMOUNT Make tape on current drive available for use. Supply a volume name for the tape. An initialised tape in an allocated drive can be mounted by choosing one of the items from the "Mount" menu. Clicking the right mouse button on the menu button selects the choice to identify a unknown (but labelled) volume. The first "Mount" choice is labelled "Identify". It will attempt to identify and mount an unknown but initialised volume. This choice can take a long time but is very useful if you know that a tape is already labelled but you cannot remember what the volume name is! The second "Mount" choice brings up a popup window. Enter the volume name of the tape and click on the "Mount" button in the popup window. +widget DISMOUNT Unload tape from current drive. A mounted tape can be dismounted by clicking on the "Dismount" button as long as all files on the tape are closed. Dismounting a tape causes the drive door to open or the tape to be ejected. +widget MOPEN Start file on tape ready for use. Write file header labels on tape to ANSI standard. A file can be opened on a mounted tape by choosing one of the options from the "Open" menu. Most choices bring up a popup window. The "Labelled" choice will open a file on a ANSI labelled tape with default parameters. Enter the name of the file and click on the "Open" button in the popup window. The defaults currently in use can be seen by using the "Custom" menu choice. The "Unlabelled" choice will open a file on an unlabelled tape with default parameters. In this case (only) there is no popup window and the action is carried out immediately. If the default values are not wanted use the "Custom" menu choice. This allows control over the parameters. +widget CLOSE Close file on tape. Write end of file labels on tape to ANSI standard. An open file on the tape in the selected drive can be closed by clicking on the "Close" button. +widget REWIND Rewind tape on current drive. Rewinds the tape on the currently selected drive. This option is only available for unlabelled tapes in state Mounted. +widget WRITETM Write tape mark on current drive. Writes a tape (file) mark on the tape on the currently selected drive. This option is only available for unlabelled tapes in state Open. +widget SKIP Skips tape mark(s) or data block(s) on current drive. This option is only available for unlabelled tapes in state Open. A popup window allows the skip option to be chosen. You can skip any number of tape marks or data blocks either forwards or backwards on the tape. +widget STATUS Obtain status information about your data files and tapes. Displays of all aspects of the tapes may be displayed. Click on the "Status" button in the "Tape Drive Control" window to bring up a menu of available status displays. Select the "Summary" menu option to display a summary of information about the currently claimed drives. By default the window is refreshed every 10 seconds. The window shows information from four drives at a time; use the menu from the "More Drives" button to display a different set of drives. Select the "File" menu option to show information specific to the tape in the selected drive. The information is not refreshed except when another drive is selected. The "Information" line is useful when there has been an error. It shows information returned from the server about the last error. Select the "Drive" menu option to show information specific to the selected drive. The information is not refreshed except when another drive is selected. Select the "Streams" menu option to show information specific to the Data Acquisition data streams. All inuse streams are shown. +widget FDLIST The drives which are available for use. These may be Claimed. +widget UDLIST The drives which are in-use. These have been Claimed but may be Freed. +widget MDISPLAY Updates information and controls window appearance. Click on the "Redisplay" button using the right hand mouse button in the "Tape Drive Control" window to refresh the contents of this window and its associated subwindows. It is possible, for example if a user has claimed tape drives from another workstation, for the window contents to be incorrect. "Redisplay" will update the contents of all the currently displayed tape drive windows. The "Redisplay" button can also bring up a menu with "Redisplay" and two other choices; these are "Enable All Buttons" and "Disable Inactive Buttons". "Enable All Buttons" makes all the "Drive:", "Volume:" and "File:" buttons active, that is not inactive. This means they can be clicked on even if their action would be inappropriate to the current state of the selected drive. This is sometimes useful if the server, a tape drive or the display is in an unexpected state. "Disable Inactive Buttons" make inactive (that is not selectable) any disallowed "Drive:", "Volume:" or "File:" buttons. This means they can only be clicked on if the action would be appropriate to the current state of the selected drive. +widget EGSTATE Shows and allows control of the Tape Server state. Data will only flow from the data acquisition system onto tape when the Tape Server is in the "Going" state. Streams can only be associated with tape drives when the server is in the halted state. The "Server state" buttons reflect the state of the tape server and can be used to change its state. Click on the appropriate button to start or stop the tape server. This can also be carried out from the "System Control" frame. +widget ASSOC Sets routing of data from a Data Acquisition stream to physical tape drives. In order to send event data to a tape it is necessary to "associate" the Data Acquisition stream(s) on which it is routed to a physical tape drive or drives. Data from one or more Data Acquisition streams can be directed to one or more different tapes. There are two modes of association, "striped" and "duplicated". Striped data is spread across several tapes. In this way the data rate through the tape server can be increased although the rate to any individual drive is not. In the duplicated case all the data is written to all the drives, in this way several tapes of the same data can be made for sharing between collaborators without subsequent copying. When the required stream and drives have been chosen click on the "Associate" button. This action will associate the chosen Data Acquisition stream with the selected drives. +widget DISSOC Cancels routing of data from a Data Acquisition stream. To cancel all associations for the stream click on the "Dissociate" button. +widget TSUDLIST The drives which are in-use. Select from here to create an association string. The list is updated every time a new drive is claimed or freed from the Tape Drive Control frame. The tape drives to be associated with a Data Acquisition stream are selected from the in-use list. Select drives by clicking on them in the list. To select drives for association in "duplicate" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a space character (this is the default). To select drives for association in "striped" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a + character. It is permitted to select a combination of "duplicate" and "strip" modes. for example: The associate string a+b c d+e will write 1 copy of the data to drives a and b in stripe mode write 1 copy of the data to drive c alone and write 1 copy of the data to drives d and e in stripe mode +widget STRINGS You can build the association list using the mouse (or type it in!). The tape drives to be associated with a Data Acquisition stream are selected from the in-use list. Select drives by clicking on them in the list. To select drives for association in "duplicate" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a space character (this is the default). To select drives for association in "striped" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a + character. It is permitted to select a combination of "duplicate" and "strip" modes. for example: The associate string a+b c d+e will write 1 copy of the data to drives a and b in stripe mode write 1 copy of the data to drive c alone and write 1 copy of the data to drives d and e in stripe mode +widget CLEAR Clears the association string. Does not remove association. +widget AUTOMODE Enable or disable the Auto Association feature. The Auto checkbutton allows selection of a mode of operation in which association of Data Acquisition stream(s) to drives is performed automatically when possible. The default state is that auto mode is enabled. Automatic association is possible if the following conditions are valid: 1. The auto mode is enabled 2. The Tape Server is in the Stop state 3. Only 1 Data Acquisition data stream is selected If these conditions are valid then a tape drive will be associated or added to the existing associate list in duplicate mode when a file is opened on the drive and will be removed from the associate list when a file is closed on the drive. +widget PLUS Select association mode for next tape in association list. To select drives for association in "duplicate" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a space character (this is the default). To select drives for association in "striped" mode select the drives and "Join next drive with" a + character. It is permitted to select a combination of "duplicate" and "strip" modes. for example: The associate string a+b c d+e will write 1 copy of the data to drives a and b in stripe mode write 1 copy of the data to drive c alone and write 1 copy of the data to drives d and e in stripe mode +widget ASSOCS1 Current Data Acquisition stream drive association. Data for this Data Acquisition stream will be routed to the drives in the association list. +widget ASSOCS2 Current Data Acquisition stream drive association. Data for this Data Acquisition stream will be routed to the drives in the association list. +widget ASSOCS3 Current Data Acquisition stream drive association. Data for this Data Acquisition stream will be routed to the drives in the association list. +widget ASSOCS4 Current Data Acquisition stream drive association. Data for this Data Acquisition stream will be routed to the drives in the association list. +widget NUMSTRMS Select the number of data streams required. The Tape Server allows up to 4 Data Acquisition data streams to be used. You should not select more streams here than you intend to use and remember that the auto associate feature is only available if 1 data stream is in use. A Data Acquisition stream is chosen by clicking on one of the choice buttons labelled "Data Stream". +widget EGSTREAM Select the required data stream. Allows you to select the Data Acquisition data stream required. There will be only as many choices as there are data streams in use. +widget TP-HELP For help place the mouse over the item and press F1 For additional help where available on a widget place the mouse over the interesting item and press the F1 function key.