John,

For IBM drives you do not use the TSM drivers, but rather the base IBM
drivers you allude to.  So continue to use those.  This is true for any
manufacturer's library that has IBM drives in it.  Another very
important point is to make sure and use the install.exe within the IBM
driver package to install these drivers (on Windows platforms) or you
will have no end of grief.

Thanks, 


Kelly J. Lipp
VP Manufacturing & CTO
STORServer, Inc.
485-B Elkton Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
719-266-8777
lipp AT storserver DOT com

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Schneider, John
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:19 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] Compatiblity between LTO IBM and TSM drivers

Greetings,      
        Quick compatibility question I haven't seen discussed.  If it
has and I missed it, I am sorry.
        My preference with IBM tape libraries and LTO drives on a TSM
server is to use the IBMtape drivers, not the TSM drivers.  In fact, I
wonder why Tivoli even has a special driver for IBM's tape drives, when
IBM provides a
perfectly good one.   I am about to upgrade a TSM server I just
inherited
from TSM 5.2.x to TSM 5.3.4 on a new box, and wanted to standardize on
the IBMtape drivers from here on out.  But I am also migrating a 3583
tape library with LTO1 drives and tapes that are already written with
the TSM driver, and I am wondering if I am going to have a problem
afterward being able to read the tapes written by the TSM driver.
        Can anyone tell me for certain if this is going to be a problem,
or do I have to stay with the TSM driver?  I don't really have anything
against the TSM driver, I just want to make all my TSM servers the same
configuation as much as I can.

Best Regards,

John D. Schneider
Sr. System Administrator - Storage
Sisters of Mercy Health System
3637 South Geyer Road
St. Louis, MO.  63127
Email:  schnjd AT stlo.mercy DOT net
Office: 314-364-3150, Cell:  314-486-2359