Chapter 1 — Library Overview Library Features
December 2019 User Guide—Spectra T200, T380, and T680 Libraries
43
RIM The RIM has two dual-channel 4 or 2-Gbps Fibre Channel ports (Port A and
Port B), which can be used to provide connections to two separate Fibre
Channel arbitrated loops or fabrics. The two ports can also be used to provide
redundant control paths to the robotics from a single Fibre Channel arbitrated
loop or fabric.
Controller failover can be configured using a second RIM or an F-QIP.
Important: A library that contains one or more Robotic Interface Modules
(RIMs) must have BlueScale11.1.3 or later installed.
Only direct-attached Fibre Channel drives can be used when a RIM is used to
provide the robotic control path. If you have SCSI drives, you must use an F-QIP
or E-QIP to provide the robotic control path as well as connectivity for the
drives.
Notes:
The Ethernet port on the RIM is reserved for future use.
The Diag port on the RIM is for troubleshooting only.
F-QIP The F-QIP has two integrated dual-channel ports (Port A and Port B), which can
be used to provide connections to two separate Fibre Channel arbitrated loops
or fabrics. They can also be used to provide redundant control paths to the
robotics from a single Fibre Channel arbitrated loop or fabric. In addition to the
robotics connectivity, the two ports each provide any-to-any connectivity for up
to four drives in the DBA where the controller is installed.
Controller failover can be configured using a second F-QIP or a RIM.
An additional feature of the F-QIP is the ability to encrypt data before it is
written to tape. This capability is useful if the SCSI drives installed in the
library cannot perform encryption themselves. Encryption key management is
provided through the library’s BlueScale user interface (see the Spectra Tape
Libraries Encryption User Guide).
One set of activity LEDs indicates SCSI bus activity (data transfer to or from the
attached drives). The other set of activity LEDs indicates whether the data
passing to the attached drives is being encrypted or decrypted by the F-QIP.
Notes:
The Ethernet port on the F-QIP is not used.
The Diag port on the F-QIP is for troubleshooting only.
The RS-232 port on the F-QIP is for troubleshooting only.
The encryption performed by the F-QIP is not compatible with the drive-
based encryption available with LTO-4 and later generation drives. Data
encrypted by the F-QIP cannot be decrypted by an encryption-enabled LTO-4
or later drive and vice versa.
Tape drive The commands to control the motion of the robotics within the partition are
sent from the host to the exporting drive’s logical unit number 1 (LUN 1). The
motion control commands are then routed to the robotics using the exporting
drive’s Automation/Drive Interface (ADI).
Controller Description
To Next Page
