Patent ID: 8743501

Claim:
A method, comprising: controlling a tape library to perform a media scanning operation associated with an extended data life management policy, where the media scanning operation is performed on a tape that is not currently in use by an application and where the media scanning operation is performed using a tape drive that is not a member of an application representation available to the application, where the application is a data management application that provides content sharing, data archiving, and data de-duplication for a shared file system configured to operate in a storage area network; determining a result of the media scanning operation; and selectively controlling the tape library to perform one of: providing status concerning the result to an application external to the tape library; and issuing a command to the application external to the tape library, where the command is a copy media command that is available for invocation by the tape library through an application programming interface provided by the application external to the tape library, and where the copy media command is issued upon determining that the result indicated a failure of the media scanning operation.