Frankenstein Tape Libraries - SL48 same as HP MSL4048? Put LTO6 drive in SL48?

[mbw]

Hey Auto-loader aficionados,

I have a Sun/Oracle SL48 tape library with SCSI LTO-4 drives in it

Oracle is not updating this library to LTO6 drives, but HP has a very similar model that does....
can I buy the HP LTO6 drives and put them in the SL48 and expect them to work?

Alternatively, can I buy an empty (no drives) HP MSL4048 and put the SCSI LTO4 drives from the SL48 in it?

The hardware looks identical between SL48 and MSL4048 - anyone tried flashing the library
firmware for one on the other? Are the parts interchangeable?

This document seems to suggest that the hardware is all the same: (HP MSL G3 Series)

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21233628




Just trying to save precious State money over here in seattle...

thanks,
Matt

 

[moon-buddy]

May not work.

Most libraries have firmware that talk to the tape drives. I have seen this with IBM and Quantum libraries.

If you can borrow the LTO drive, it might be well your effort to try.