Mixed media and storage pools

You can optimize the efficiency of your tape solution by not mixing media formats in a storage pool. Instead of mixing formats, map each unique media format to a separate storage pool by using its own device class. This restriction also applies to LTO formats.

Multiple storage pools and their device classes of different types can point to the same library that can support them as described in Different media generations in a library.

You can migrate to a new generation of a media type within the same storage pool by following these steps:

1. Replace all older drives with the newer generation drives within the library. The drives should be mixed.
2. Mark the existing volumes with the older formats read-only if the new drive cannot append those tapes in the old format. If the new drive can write to the existing media in their old format, this is not necessary, but Step 1 is still required. If it is necessary to keep different drive generations that are read but not write compatible within the same library, use separate storage pools for each.