Patent ID: 8433772

Claim:
A first computer system comprising: a central processing unit (CPU); a memory coupled to the CPU; a computer-readable, tangible storage device coupled to the CPU, the storage device containing instructions that when carried out by the CPU via the memory implement a method of automatically sharing a tape drive in a heterogeneous computing environment, the method comprising the steps of: the first computer system receiving a first message that includes an identifier of a tape drive shared among a plurality of computer systems in the heterogeneous computing environment, an identifier of a source port of a second computer system, and an indication of a first change in a reservation status of the tape drive, wherein the first computer system and the second computer system are included in the plurality of computer systems; the first computer system determining the tape drive is connected to the first computer system based on the identifier of the tape drive; the first computer system extracting the identifier of the source port from the received first message; the first computer system determining the extracted identifier of the source port does not identify any host bus adapter installed in the first computer system; based on the step of determining the extracted identifier of the source port does not identify any host bus adapter installed in the first computer system, the first computer system determining the indication of the first change indicates a first command from the second computer system that reserves the tape drive for the second computer system; and responsive to the step of determining the indication of the first change indicates the first command, the first computer system setting the tape drive offline in a first application executing in the first computer system, wherein the step of receiving the first message includes receiving a World Wide Port Name (WWPN) as the identifier of the source port included in the first message, wherein the WWPN identifies a port of the second computer system, wherein the step of determining the identifier of the source port does not identify any host bus adapter installed in the first computer system includes determining the WWPN does not match any WWPN that identifies any host bus adapter installed in the first computer system, and wherein the step of determining the indication of the first change indicates the first command from the second computer system that reserves the tape drive for the second computer system is further based on the step of determining the WWPN does not match any WWPN that identifies any host bus adapter installed in the first computer system.