We've got an HP MSL6000 tape robot with an LTO2 drive in it.

Could I swap an LTO4 drive into there without a problem?

HP has an LTO2->LTO4 "upgrade kit" for the robot, but it costs 3 times as much as a bare tape drive, so I want to know if I can avoid spending that money.

Thanks.

Andrew

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Andrew,

Having worked for most of the library manufacturers I can tell you that it's going to be tricky without support from the library vendor. For starters you will have to update the library firmware to a level that supports LTO-4. Depending on who actually made your library (I think the MLS6000 is Overland but could be Quantum) there may be firmware on the drive sled as well. In that case you should buy an HP LTO-4 that's already in a sled for that particular library. Buying a bare LTO-4 and putting it into an LTO-2 sled may cause the library to puke when you slide it in or cause other issues while updating the firmware. Be aware that there is also something called a Library to Drive interface which communicates drive status to the library. If that has changed at all between LTO-2 and LTO-4 then going with just a bare drive will never work. Oh....and a library drive has a different firmware "personality" from a standard drive and has had the load mechanism modified.

FYI, bare tape drives are just like bare hard drives. You can't just take any HD, pop it into a drive carrier and then put it into an array and expect it to work. Sorry, it is a conspiracy among us vendor types :-)

Frank Blamauer | Systems Engineer, Eastern Canada |?BlueArc Corporation | (905) 407-1262

-----Original Message----- From: studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@mailman.studiosysadmins.com [mailto:studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@mailman.studiosysadmins.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Klaassen Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:46 AM To: Studio Sysadmins Subject: LTO4 in LTO2 robot?

We've got an HP MSL6000 tape robot with an LTO2 drive in it.

Could I swap an LTO4 drive into there without a problem?

HP has an LTO2->LTO4 "upgrade kit" for the robot, but it costs 3 times as much as a bare tape drive, so I want to know if I can avoid spending that money.

Thanks.

Andrew

Make your browsing faster, safer, and easier with the new Internet Explorer? 8. Optimized for Yahoo! Get it Now for Free! at http://downloads.yahoo.com/ca/internetexplorer/

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Hi Frank,

That's disappointing, but good to know. Thanks.

Andrew

--- On Mon, 3/8/10, Frank Blamauer fblamauer@bluearc.com wrote:

Andrew,

Having worked for most of the library manufacturers I can tell you that it's going to be tricky without support from the library vendor. For starters you will have to update the library firmware to a level that supports LTO-4. Depending on who actually made your library (I think the MLS6000 is Overland but could be Quantum) there may be firmware on the drive sled as well. In that case you should buy an HP LTO-4 that's already in a sled for that particular library. Buying a bare LTO-4 and putting it into an LTO-2 sled may cause the library to puke when you slide it in or cause other issues while updating the firmware. Be aware that there is also something called a Library to Drive interface which communicates drive status to the library. If that has changed at all between LTO-2 and LTO-4 then going with just a bare drive will never work. Oh....and a library drive has a different firmware "personality" from a standard drive and has had the load mechanism modified.

FYI, bare tape drives are just like bare hard drives. You can't just take any HD, pop it into a drive carrier and then put it into an array and expect it to work. Sorry, it is a conspiracy among us vendor types :-)

Frank Blamauer | Systems Engineer, Eastern Canada |?BlueArc Corporation | (905) 407-1262

-----Original Message----- From: studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@mailman.studiosysadmins.com [mailto:studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@mailman.studiosysadmins.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Klaassen Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:46 AM To: Studio Sysadmins Subject: LTO4 in LTO2 robot?

We've got an HP MSL6000 tape robot with an LTO2 drive in it.

Could I swap an LTO4 drive into there without a problem?

HP has an LTO2->LTO4 "upgrade kit" for the robot, but it costs 3 times as much as a bare tape drive, so I want to know if I can avoid spending that money.

Thanks.

Andrew

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