What assigning tape aliases is

Aliasing simplifies the process of device identification. Aliasing binds a physical path name (PPN) or a serial number (SN) of a tape or a medium changer to a persistent, but modifiable alias name.

The following table describes how tape aliasing enables you to ensure that a tape drive (or tape library or medium changer) is always associated with a single alias name:

Scenario	Reassigning of the alias
When the system reboots	The tape drive is automatically reassigned its previous alias.
When a tape device moves to another port	The alias can be adjusted to point to the new address.
When more than one system uses a particular tape device	The user can set the alias to be the same for all the systems.

Assigning tape aliases provides a correspondence between the logical names of backup devices (for example, st0 or mc1) and a name permanently assigned to a port, a tape drive, or a medium changer.

Note: st0 and st00 are different logical names.

You can use tape aliases as parameters to the dump, restore, smtape backup, and smtape restore commands.

Note: Logical names and serial numbers are used only to access a device. After the device is accessed, it returns all error messages by using the physical path name.

There are two types of names available for aliasing: physical path name and serial number.

What assigning tape aliases is

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