Patent ID: 11922073
Assignee: DELL PRODUCTS L.P.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 6:
7. A virtual tape emulator, comprising:
an operating system;
a first instance of a virtual tape emulation application executing in the context of the operating system, the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application including a plurality of device management processes for a set of virtual tape drives;
a second instance of a virtual tape emulation application executing in the context of the operating system;
the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application having a virtual tape emulation application migration engine containing control logic configured to:
receive a transition notice by a first instance of the virtual tape emulation application instructing the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to transfer the device management processes for the set of virtual tape drives to the second instance of the virtual tape emulation application;
for each virtual tape drive:
determine if a virtual tape has been mounted to the virtual tape drive;
when a virtual tape has not been mounted to the virtual tape drive, transfer a respective device management process for the virtual tape drive from the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to the second instance of the virtual tape emulation application;
when a virtual tape has been mounted to the virtual tape drive, continue to process workload on the virtual tape that has been mounted to the virtual tape drive by the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application;
determining by the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application that the virtual tape has been unmounted from the virtual tape drive; and
when the virtual tape has been unmounted to the virtual tape drive, transfer the respective device management process for the virtual tape drive from the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to the second instance of the virtual tape emulation application;

determine that device management processes for all virtual tape drives have been transferred from the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to the second instance of the virtual tape emulation application; and
in response to determining that device management processes for all virtual tape drives have been transferred from the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to the second instance of the virtual tape emulation application, cause the first instance of the virtual tape emulation application to terminate.