On Tue, 29 Sep 2009, BeDour, Wayne wrote:

> Our environment HP-UX 11.31 a SureStore 20/700 library with 10 LTO-1
> drives, NetBackup 6.5.2 Master / Media server and one Windows Media
> server using SSO.
>
> We are looking into purchasing an HP ESL 712 ultrium tape library using
> LTO-4 drives and I have a few questions about this.
>
> Has anyone had any experience with the ESL 712 library?
Not I.

>
> Can I use the LTO-4 drives to read our old LTO-1 tapes for restores?
No, LTO-4 can only read back as far as LTO-2.

Per: http://www.supermediastore.com/dlt-tape-sdlt-lto-tape-media-faq.html#10

- The LTO compatibility is defined with two concepts demonstrating investment 
protection:
1) An LTO drive is expected to read data from a cartridge in its own generation 
and at least the two prior generations.
2) An LTO drive is expected to write data to a cartridge in its own generation 
and to a cartridge from the immediate prior generation in the prior generation 
format.

So you can read LTO-2/3/4.
So you can write LTO-3/4.

But you cannot read or write LTO-1.

>
> If I can run with reading LTO-1 tapes, do I need to set up bar code
> rules to identify the LTO-4 tapes and LTO-1 tapes?
If you keep the LTO-1 drives [and install LTO-4 drives in the same library], 
you will need to make barcodes to identify and separate the LTO-1 media vs. 
LTO-4 media.

>
> Would it be better to run with a mixture of LTO-1 and LTO-4 drives in
> the library?
Depending on the library this can be problematic depending on how you set
things up.  Is it possible to keep the old environment up and running
and keep the old robot+drives available for restores and/or so you can run
bpduplicate from one robot/drive to the other?

>
> Thanks in advance, any thoughts or comments are appreciated.
>
>
>
>
>
> Wayne BeDour
>
> Unix System Administrator
>
> PH: 313-593-9876
>
> Internet:  wbedour AT lear DOT com
>

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