Table 9. Supported tape drives
Type Form factor
(height)
Interface Number of
Ports
Speeds of
connectivity
Native data
rate
LTO6 1U (Half-
height)
Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS)
2 6 Gbps SAS 160 MB/s
LTO6 1U (Half-
height)
Fibre Channel
(FC)
1 8 Gbps FC 160 MB/s
LTO6 2U (Full-height) Fibre Channel
(FC)
2 8 Gbps FC 160 MB/s
LTO7 1U (Half-
height)
Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS)
2 6 Gbps SAS 300 MB/s
LTO7 1U (Half-
height)
Fibre Channel
(FC)
1 8 Gbps FC 300 MB/s
LTO7 2U (Full-height) Fibre Channel
(FC)
2 8 Gbps FC 300 MB/s
LTO8 1U (Half-
height)
Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS)
2 6 Gbps SAS 300 MB/s
LTO8 1U (Half-
height)
Fibre Channel
(FC)
1 8 Gbps FC 300 MB/s
LTO8 2U (Full-height) Fibre Channel
(FC)
2 8 Gbps FC 360 MB/s
The LTO tape drives communicate with the library through an internal Ethernet interface. For enhanced
performance, the LTO tape drives include speed matching, channel calibration, and power management.
Speed matching dynamically adjusts the drive’s normal native (uncompressed) data rate to the slower
data rate of a server. Channel calibration customizes each read/write data channel for optimum
performance. The customization enables compensation for variations in the recording channel transfer
function, media characteristics, and read/write head characteristics. Power management reduces the
drive’s power consumption during idle power periods.
Control path drives
A control path is a logical path to the library.
A control path is the path for SCSI Medium Changer commands that are sent by a server to control a
speciîš³c logical library. The library has no direct SCSI connection to a host server. When a software host
server communicates with the library, it sends the communication by way of a tape drive. The tape drive
is designated as a control path drive.
Mixed drives
All supported generations of LTO tape drives and cartridges can be in the same physical library and within
a single module.
This library supports a mixture of LTO drive types in a logical library. Some independent software vendors
(ISVs) support mixed drive types within a logical library and other do not. Some ISVs that support mixed
drive types might have restrictions. For details, contact your ISV.
Figure 17 on page 13
shows examples of methods for mixing LTO drive types in a logical library.
12
IBM TS4300 Tape Library Machine Type 3555: User's Guide
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