Hello again,

I'm still confused if a Storagetek library L180 with two SDLT drives and 1
DLT7000 drive is supported by TSM (server 5.2.x.y). I've been reading the
manuals again and the TSM manual says:

"While the Tivoli Storage Manager server now allows mixed device types in a
library, the mixing of different generations of the same type of drive is
still not supported. A new generation of media can be read and written to by
new drives,
but cannot be read by older drives. The previous generation of media usually
can be read but cannot be written to by the new drives that support the new
generation of media."

But is a SDLT tape considered as a new generation derived from DLT7000 (SDLT
can read only a DLTIV tape and a SDLT tape cannot be read by a DLT7000
drive)? The manual says you cannot mix DLT7000 and DLT8000 drives (both
DLTIV media), neither can SDLT220 and SDLT320 be mixed. But is the same
reasoning valid for DLTIV and SDLT320? Has anybody tried this already or
does anybody knows an official answer from IBM itself? Or an answer from IBM
directly?

The library should be configured as follows:

define library mixlib libtype=scsi
define path server01 mixlib srctype=server desttype=library device=lb3.0.0.0

define drive mixlib dlt_mt4
define drive mixlib lto_mt5
define path server01 dlt_mt4 srctype=server desttype=drive library=mixlib
device=mt4.0.0.0
define path server01 sdlt_mt5 srctype=server desttype=drive library=mixlib
device=mt5.0.0.0

The type of the drives (DLT or SDLT is not yet specified anywhere), this is
done in the device class definition:

define devclass dlt_class devtype=dlt format=dlt35c library=mixlib
define devclass sdlt_class devtype=dlt format=sdlt320c library=mixlib

The format=drive cannot be used as the specified format is used by TSM to
select a drive.

And finally the storagepools are defined:

define stgpool dlt_pool dlt_class maxscratch=20
define stgpool sdlt_pool sdlt_class maxscratch=20

But if you checkin or label a new tape, how does TSM knows that it is a DLT
or SDLT tape? Or how does TSM knows when a new scratch volume is allocated
it is a DLT scratch tape or a SDLT scratch tape? The storagepool is linked
to DLT or SDLT through the device class. But in the drive definition or path
definition, the type of drive (DLT or SDLT) is not mentioned. So am I
missing a link here?

Any answers, remarks or other insights are more than appreciated.

Kurt