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DELL-Phani M

14 Posts

3026

October 8th, 2016 21:00

Dell tape libraries - some queries

Hello there,

I have been exploring Dell tape options, looking for answers for the below questions:

  • Based on my reading I understood that different LTOs have different backup rates, want to check if the tape media(other than tape drive) as well impact overall performance, say LTO-7 media in LTO-7 drive vs LTO-6 media in LTO-7 drive, I read LTO-7 has 300MB/s, does LTO-6 media in LTO-7 drive bring down the speed to 160MB/s?
  • Are there any specific guidelines or sizing tool that is in place from Dell, which can be used to select a specific model of tape based on capacity and performance details from customer, any online tool?
  • Any updated wiki/dell internal site where can I find latest information related to Dell tapes
  • Does tapes have any raid / mirroring capabilities at hardware level, or is it handled only by backup software?
  • In case any tape drive / media fails? How this is handled automatically? Is there a concept of hot spare? Any data rebuilding? What is the concept in case of data loss?
  • what is the number of FC ports per drive across each tape library - say TL2000, TL4000, ML series (ML I found it is 2 fc ports per drive)

thanks

Phani

DELL-Sam L

Moderator

 • 

6.9K Posts

October 10th, 2016 11:00

Hello Phani,

  1. Yes if you insert an LTO6 media into LTO7 drive the drive will run at LTO6 speed.
  2. No there is not.
  3. Here is a link to the support matrix which has the latest updates to tape drives. http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/common/tl1000_tl2000_tl4000_lt07_lt06_110t_lto3__rd1000_ml6000_compatibility_matrix_en-us.pdf

Here is also the LTO media handbook as well. http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/common/tl1000_tl2000_tl4000_mediahandbook.pdf

4. No. tape only will write any data that is sent to it.

5. If the media fails during a backup then depending on your backup software it will either do nothing until u remove the bad media, or it will remove the bad media & get another media & try that one & complete the backup. In the case of data loss on a server you would need to do a restore from tape when you use your backup software it will tell you which media it needs to restore the data.

6. Yes that is correct 2 FC ports per drive. The thing to know is that only one FC Port Per drive will work unless you purchase the failover license for the second port.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

DELL-Phani M

14 Posts

October 11th, 2016 00:00

Hi Sam,

thanks for the detailed response, and for the links

here are my followup queries:

  • regarding 2 FC ports per drive - if I understood it correctly, in any case the operational no of ports is alwasys 1, second one is only for redundancy. right?
  • 2 FC ports per drive applies to all tape models - TL series (TL2000, TL4000) and ML series(ML6010, ML6020, ML6030), does this port failover concept is available in both TL and ML models?
  • while I was reading ML series user guide _ found about FC I/O blades - it says there will be "6 ports with auto-negotiating, 4 Gb/s FC ports and backplane connections. The FC I/O blade provides two host communication ports and four connection ports to FC drives" - in this blade option - two host ports are for failover purpose or both can be used to increase cummulative bandwidth to 4+4 = 8Gb/s?
  • is there any recommendation around no of cleaning tapes to be suggested, say for every 6  drives 1 drives, similarly any rules for extra tape media to be considered while recommending to customers, any thumb rules?
  • Also, I wanted to understand more about import/export slots, based on my reading I understood that these are some extra slots to swap the tape media (in case of any errors, bad media, full media etc), is that correct? is there any thumb rule to suggest some "X" no of I/E slots or this is pre-defined number?
  • question on total no of slots - data is presented in table format, I am interested in two things here, total n oof cartridges and Import/Export slots, If I take the example of ML6010, table says - Number of cartridges - 41 and Import/Export slots - 6, now does this mean in total there will be total of 47 slots, out of which 41 are for storage/cleaning media and rest 6 are empty slots for exchange of tape media or in total there will be only 41 slots part of which 6 are Import/Export slots?
  • max FC interface speed in a FC tape drive is 8Gb/s, is that correct? in that case I can use 8Gb FC optic cables to connect FC drives and FC I/O blade, right?

thanks

Phani

DELL-Phani M

14 Posts

October 11th, 2016 06:00

Hi Sam,

some more questions:

  • does FC I/O blade support connections to LTO-7 FC tape drives as well? I was reading power vault ML6000 user guide - in the guide @ page no - 228, it is mentioned that - " The FC I/O blades support connections to LTO-2, LTO-3, LTO-4, LTO-5 and LTO-6 drives" 
  • further the guide says - A maximum of four FC I/O blades can be present in any library configuration. A maximum of four FC drives can be connected to one FC I/O blade, but with 4 blades only 16 can be connected to blades, but the highest configurations with ML6030 = 2*EM can have 18 drives, in this of maximum always - 2 drives should be used as direct attached, right?
  • does the FC cabling from a tape drive to FC I/O blade can be redundant, can we have two FC cables running from drive to blade, are they in active -passive mode or active - active mode?
  • in case of multi modules - there is module to module connection from LCB (library control blade) to other modules, same time there is ethernet connection from LCB to expansion modules (one per FC IO blade), what is the role difference between these two connections, or what exactly is the role of these two connections? (I know it says without these ethernet connections FC IO blade will not work, - I understood that ethernet connection is for enabling remote connectivity to expansoin modules, then what does the module-module connection does?

thanks

Phani

DELL-Phani M

14 Posts

October 14th, 2016 09:00

any update ??

DELL-Sam L

Moderator

 • 

6.9K Posts

October 24th, 2016 08:00

Hello Phani,

  1. Yes LTO 7 Is supported by the FC I/O blade.
  2. Yes that is correct.
  3. NO you have to manually move the cables.
  4. The module to module connector is need so that any expansion module is seen by the Command Module. All the configuration will be done on the CM and then is passed to the EM.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

DELL-Phani M

14 Posts

October 24th, 2016 08:00

thank you very much for the information

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