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IBM i Removable Media: Welcome page

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Abstract

This document provides an overview of Removable Media support for IBM i and links to the documents that provide detailed information for IBM i Removable Media support.

Content

IBM i provides support for tape drives, tape media libraries, virtual tape libraries, virtual tape devices, optical devices, and virtual optical devices. 

IBM officially supports and tests ONLY IBM Tape Media Libraries, IBM tape drives, IBM Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL, ProtecTIER), Removable Mass Storage (RMS) drives, and IBM optical drives.  IBM also certifies DSI VTLs (DSI425, DSI520, DSI540 and DSI620). No testing occurs with any OEM Tape Media Libraries, OEM Virtual Tape Libraries (except DSI), OEM tape drives, OEM RMS drives, or OEM optical drives.

The only tape devices tested and officially supported are the ones that IBM sells and are listed as supported in the other documents linked to by this document.

The IBM i Removable Media team does not develop code to specifically support a particular OEM device, nor do we put code in to try to block any OEM device.  Any claims of an OEM device being supported on IBM i are exclusively those of the OEM vendor.  It is the sole responsibility of the OEM vendor to properly emulate the drive their inquiry data says they are emulating, and to test that the drive really does work when connected to IBM i.

Virtual Tape Media Libraries on IBM i (VTL)

 IBM has qualified SAN attachment of the Dynamic Solutions International DSI-420, DSI425, DSI520, DSI540, DSI620 and DSI720 VTLs.  More information is available here.

IBM has also qualified FalconStor VTLs in IBM Cloud PowerVS environments

See the following IBM clarification for EMC Virtual Tape Libraries  EMC Licensing Agreement - Data Domain Clarification with IBM i

To get more information for attaching tape drives to your IBM i, see one or more of the following links:

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Document Information

Modified date:
09 July 2025

UID

ibm11105935

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