🚀 go-pugleaf

You could use a tape utility that does image copies of tapes.
It would make an exact copy of the tape. These are the tapes which change
each time files are archived.
Twins for closed vmarchive tapes go offsite. These are the tapes which don't
change until you run a merge and purge.
An image copy of the current vmarchive tapes are made once each day.
These go offsite on a rotating daily basis.
Innovations's FATAR can make image copies if you have a batch processing
system (MVS) to which you can punch a VMscheduled job to do it.
A volume query with base option is used to find the most recent LASTU date
of a base volume. Then the chain is run to the end and the tape/s at the end
are cloned, LASTU date should be today if archive ran already.
The external labels can be confusing when the vmarchive tapes change.
You don't want two volumes labeled vma993 because you would need to
change the labels every time vmarch started new tapes.
You could label them sun, mon, tue, . . . Get some tapes for copies with the
red cases so they shouldn't get mixed up with the "real tapes".