Yes, the STK L-series works that way. If you remove or power down drives
and then recycle the library, the display will read something like:
     00 EMPTY
     01 --
     02 --
     ...
     09 EMPTY
and it will report only two drives to NetWorker, so jbconfig will only ask
for two.

Legato warned us against having mixed media in a library without AlphaStor.
According to them (we didn't try it), pools work fine on backups but a
restore will always use the next available drive regardless of pool. So
NetWorker could -- and in your case will, half the time -- ask the jukebox
to load a DLT tape in an LTO drive or vice-versa.

You are correct that STK claims (again untested by us) that the library
knows the difference and will avoid the "horrible crunching of plastic
breaking" (great image, Davina). But the load attempt will fail and
eventually the drive will become disabled.

I'd recommend against this configuration unless you're willing to load
tapes manually for all your restores.

Conrad Macina
Pfizer, Inc.


On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 22:11:49 +1100, G.V. <g_vas_66 AT YAHOO.COM DOT AU> wrote:

>Thanks Davina
>
>It is working. Though, the drive is in the 10th slot - the library reports
it as the second drive (as there are only 2 drives there).
>STK L180 supports mixed drives / tapes and is smart enough not to put
wrong tapes into wrong drives. Just need to assign them to right pools.
>
>Regards,
>
>Glen
>
>Davina Treiber <Treiber AT HOTPOP DOT COM> wrote:
>G.V. wrote:
>> I've got 2 drives installed in the library (STK L180).
>> One in the first slot (LTO-2) another one in the last (SDLT - slot 10).
>> When I run jbconfig it tries to configure all drives in sequence (slot
0, slot 1 etc.). Therefore it configures the second tdrive in slot 2
(instead of 10).
>> I wonder if I can modify NetWorker configuration somewhere (rather than
physically moving the drive to slot 2).
>>
>
>I don't think that's a supported configuration. I doubt that StorageTek
>would configure a library that way. The library is probably reporting to
>NetWorker that there are 10 drives installed, so jbconfig will expect
>you to configure 10 drives. You can probably get round it by defining
>drives 2 to 9 as file devices then disabling them. Of course these days
>there is a licencing implication to using file devices, licencing is now
>enforced for these.
>
>Also you need to be VERY careful about using mixed device types in the
>library. I don't know what will happen if the library tries to load an
>LTO-2 tape into an SDLT drive or vice versa. I can just imagine a
>horrible crunching of plastic breaking. This is not a supported
>configuration for NetWorker unless you are using some extra library
>management software such as ACSLS or AlphaStor.
>
>--
>Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
>to listserv AT listmail.temple DOT edu or visit the list's Web site at
>http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.html where you can
>also view and post messages to the list. Questions regarding this list
>should be sent to stan AT temple DOT edu
>=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
>
>--
>Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
>to listserv AT listmail.temple DOT edu or visit the list's Web site at
>http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.html where you can
>also view and post messages to the list. Questions regarding this list
>should be sent to stan AT temple DOT edu
>=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

--
Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
to listserv AT listmail.temple DOT edu or visit the list's Web site at
http://listmail.temple.edu/archives/networker.html where you can
also view and post messages to the list. Questions regarding this list
should be sent to stan AT temple DOT edu
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=