Attaching tape devices for the server
Before the server can use a tape device, you must attach the device to your server system and install the appropriate tape device driver.
About this task
To optimize system performance, use fast, high-capacity tape devices. Provision enough tape drives to meet your business requirements.
Attach tape devices on their own host bus adapter (HBA), not shared with other devices types such as disk. IBM® tape drives have some special requirements for HBAs and associated drivers.
Restrictions:
- IBM LTO-9 tape drives are supported. However, when a new tape volume is inserted into an LTO-9 tape drive, the drive must load and initialize the tape. Typically, the loading and initialization process can be completed in two hours, but the time can vary, based on several factors. The initialization process continues until the tape drive is ready. You cannot cancel the process. To avoid this issue, manually load the volumes into the tape drive in advance, before the tape drive is used by the server. To manually load the tape volumes, you can use the IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT) or the IBM Storage Protect lbtest utility.
- IBM LTO-9 tape drives require the ULTRIUM9 recording format for uncompressed mode and the ULTRIUM9C recording format for compressed mode.