> > We have been using them since 6/25.  We have 300 3M K tapes.  No prolems
> > at all.  We paid around $60/each, including labeling and initialization,
> > although the vendor did properly label then internally for AIX/ADSM, as I
> > had to label them all.
>
> Hi Steve,
>
> We are also looking into the K tapes.  Can the 3590-E1A drives with Extended
> Media Support r/w both the old J tapes and the Extended Length K tapes?  Can
> I use both kind of tapes or do I have to replace all 1000 J tapes with K
> tapes?
Hi Eliza,

     Yes, the E drives can write to both the J and K tapes.  With the J's,
you will have to mark all of your "filling" tapes R/O at conversion time.
Once those tapes cycle back to scratch, and are reused by TSM, they will
be reused at the new density, doubling their capacity.  The K's can also
read the 128track J tapes.  If you do not upgrade all of your drives at
the same time, and have to mix B and E drives, you will have to create a
new storage pool, and a second logical library.  I would recommend against
this, if at all possible.  The readme file for the TSM server has a good
section on conversion of B to E drives.

Hope this helps,


Steve Roder, University at Buffalo
VM Systems Programmer
UNIX Systems Administrator (Solaris and AIX)
ADSM Administrator
(tkssteve AT buffalo DOT edu | (716)645-3564 | 
http://ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu/~tkssteve)