Manta Technologies has announced the availability of a new course, Using Virtual Media.

Virtual media, including virtual tape volumes and virtual optical volumes, are IBM i objects that reside in system storage. Nevertheless, they behave exactly like their physical counterparts, tape cartridges and CD/DVD platters. The course begins by explaining virtual media concepts and discussing common applications for virtual tape and virtual optical volumes.

It then covers the commands used to set up virtual media.  This involves creating virtual tape devices, virtual optical devices, and image catalogs. You will see how to copy data from a physical volume to a virtual volume and how to create and initialize blank virtual tapes. Students will also see how to load a virtual image catalog into a virtual device for use.

Catalog shadowing is covered next. This is a method for sharing virtual images  among more that one virtual device.  As a result, multiple programs can use the same image catalog or virtual volume at the same time.

The course describes the remaining commands for working with image catalogs and virtual volumes and concludes with a discussion of errors that are commonly encountered when using virtual media. The student is shown how to avoid them, and how to respond when avoidance is not possible.

Using Virtual Media takes approximately two hours to complete. Like all Manta courses,  Using Virtual Media is available in two ways.  One can install the course on a PC or take the course through MantaNow, Manta’s Internet-based delivery system. Prices start at $110 for a one-year, single-user MantaNow license or $179 for a CD license.

For more information, contact Manta at (800) 40-MANTA--800-406-2682. International customers may call 303-862-4562, or visit the Manta website www.mantatech.com.