Sun Microsystems StorageTek Modular Library System SL500 - Manual (Page 48)

Tape Drives and Cartridges
16 SL500 User’s Guide • July 2008 Revision: KA • 96116
LTO Tape Drives and Cartridges
Note – LTO technology was developed by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Seagate. LTO is
an “open format’ technology, which means that users have multiple sources of product
and media.
This section discusses media compatibility and cartridge labels. For all other tape drive
and media information, such as specifications, refer to:
■
The specific vender Web site
■ http://www.sun.com/storagetek/index.jsp
For best results, match the cartridges with the specific drive type (for example, use
LTO 2 cartridges in Gen 2 drives):
The following table lists the compatibility issues among the various LTO cartridges and
tape drives. Although SL500 does not support Gen 1 drives, the column is listed for you
to consider if you need to migrate your data from older types of cartridges to newer
ones.
Note – LTO 3 drives can accept 400 GB WORM (Write Once Read Many) cartridges.
LTO 4 drives can also accept these plus the 800 GB WORM cartridges.
TABLE 1-8 LTO Media/Tape Drive Compatibility
Media Label Gen 1 Drive Gen 2 Drive Gen 3 Drive Gen 4* Drive
LTO 1 L1 Read and write Read and write Read only Non
applicable
LTO 2 L2 Non applicable Read and write Read and
write
Read only
LTO 3 L3 Non applicable Non applicable Read and
write
Read and
write
LTO 4 L4 Non applicable Non applicable Non
applicable
Read and
write
WORM
(400 GB)
LT Non applicable Non applicable Read and
write
Read and
write
WORM
(800 GB)
LU Non applicable Non applicable Non
applicable
Read and
write
Note: When available. LTO 4 drives are supported with library firmware 1126 and later.