| Juke - Robotic Tape Jukebox Control |
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Abstract
The "Juke" product is an extensible software package for interfacing
with tape, CD, and other media jukeboxes, (however since it currently is
used only for tape, media is referred to as tape throughout)
This makes it ideal for controlling tape jukeboxes for data analysis,
backups, etc. where tape mounts are needed at times when it is inconvenient
for human operators to perform them, or for automated labeling of batches
of tapes etc. The "Juke" package supports controlling multiple jukeboxes
per host, multiple hosts per jukebox, etc. with control being shared over
a network.
"Juke" controls only the jukebox media handling mechanism itself, and not
any media drives, etc. contained within the jukebox. It deals with
multiple jukebox types by treating them all as having simple, abstract
components; the tapes themselves, slots to hold the tapes, drives which
can play, read, or write the tapes, and "mailbox slots" which can be
uncovered for people to take tapes in and out of the jukebox, or
covered for the jukebox to be able to manipulate the tapes. A lookup
table of tapes is maintained, by a small dbm(3) database, however only
3 short interface routines need to be written to add in interface to an
existing tape database.
"Juke" consists of 3 main binary deliverables, an RPC daemon process
which actually controlls the jukebox, an interactive RPC client which
allows command line interface to the control of the jukebox, and an API
library which provides program callable access to jukebox control. It
also comes with an extensive user guide with numerous examples, and an
API reference describing the library calls. "Juke" is currently being
used to control Summus, Exabyte, and DEC DLT media handlers at Fermilab.
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