Mixing LTO5 and LTO6 media using LTO6 drives

[CoMaboy]

Hi all,

A couple of years ago we migrated our existing LTO5 media to a new library containing only LTO6 drives. We would like to start using LTO6 tapes alongside the existing LTO5 tapes. Most of the documentation I can find talks about mixing media and drives whereas we just want to mix the tapes.

The format of current devclass is set to DRIVE. All drives can read and write to both LTO5 and LTO6 tapes.
Am I right in assuming we can just insert new LTO6 scratch volumes? Or does this setup require separate devclasses like when using different generation drives in one library?

Thanks in advance,

 

[moon-buddy]

Yes - you can just insert LTO6 tapes and start using them.

LTO is read/write one level down so LTO5 tapes would not have issues.

LTO is read two levels down so you can still READ (only!) LTO4 tapes if needed.

 

[CoMaboy]

Thx Ed.

 

[tpesselier]

Hello for me i make new storage pool for LTO6 because mixing the tapes might complicate when you need to delete your LTO5

 

[moon-buddy]

Hello for me i make new storage pool for LTO6 because mixing the tapes might complicate when you need to delete your LTO5

Deleting LTO5 from the pool is a simple task - not an issue for me.