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January 19th, 2023 14:00

Is it still possible to obtain an Authorization Code to enable encryption on the TL2000?

Hey all -

As the title suggests. We're using an old TL2000 that's humming along great, but it doesn't make much sense for us to encrypt the drives on our server if we're just going to spit that data out in plaintext on our tape backups. So! Is it possible for us to get an Authorization Code to enable this feature, or are we up a certain creek without a paddle, and need to have our backup software perform the encryption?

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January 20th, 2023 00:00

Hi, I'm not aware of an authorization code. However, I was able to find a few useful documents.

 

Dell Encryption Key Manager and Library Managed Encryption Best Practices and FAQ https://dl.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_powervault/powervault-ml6010_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf 

Configure Library: Encryption (pg118) https://dl.dell.com/manuals/common/powervault_tl2000_tl4000_usersguide3en-us.pdf 

Library-Managed Encryption for Tape https://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/Library-Managed-Encryption-for-Tape-generic.pdf  

 

Hope that helps!

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April 20th, 2023 14:00

It actually does help, to some degree, except the documents you've pointed to effectively tell me that I have two types of encryption available to me:

  1. Application Managed Encryption - which is just a fancy way of saying "have your software encrypt the data that you pass off to the tape drive" (and which I already knew about and can use, and is specifically the type of encryption you'd want to avoid to minimize processor overhead from our application), and...
  2. Library Managed Encryption - which is where the Dell Tl2000 library instructs the tape drive to encrypt everything it writes to disk, and which requires the "activation key" I asked for at the beginning of this server, as well as a couple of key management servers which is just... ridiculous overhead for such a basic feature or for such a small shop (such as mine). Maybe it wasn't such a "basic" feature when this system debuted in the 1990s, but it is today, so alas. My search continues.

On the flip side, it does look like there are ways to connect to the tape drive from directly within the OS, provide it with an encryption key, and then we're off to the races - but I am doing more research to be sure.

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