Patent ID: 7451291

Claim:
A system operable to handle status commands directed to a media library partition, comprising: a set of one or more hosts; a media library comprising a plurality of elements of different element types, the plurality of elements including: a plurality of data storage elements; one or more data transfer elements; one or more medium transport elements; and a controller physically remote from the one or more hosts and the media library and coupled to one or more elements of the media library through a first data transport medium, the controller operable to: present a library partition to each host as a virtual media library wherein each virtual media library comprises logical element addresses representing physical element addresses for: one or more medium transport element(s), one or more data transfer element(s) and one or more data storage element(s); receive a first command sent over a network from a first host specifying one or more element addresses for a first virtual media library presented to the first host; assign new logical element addresses to represent physical element addresses in response to the first command and in accordance with the one or more element addresses specified by the first command; receive a second command sent over the network from the first host specifying an element address; and determine a corresponding physical address for the element address specified by the second command based on the new logical element addresses.