Re: Permanent backups to tape? Do you have a Tape Unit that can read those old tapes?

Very true. Had a customer who still had 3200 BPI 10" Reel tapes in storage up to a few years back. Every year the auditors would ask: "Do you have a tape drive that can read these tapes?" Truthful answer was Yes, however it was on a pallet and couldn't be connected to any machine they had possessed for 10 years! Finally one auditor asked: "And can that drive be used today?" Truthful answer: No. ALL those tapes and the drive went to the dump via a shredding service.

This is also why I keep in the FrankenLab: LTO1, LTO2, LTO3 drives. 3570 Drives. QIC 2G, 4G, 13/16G, 25G, and 100G drives. 8MM 7/15G and 20/40 AME, 3590 J, and 3490 drives - just in case someone calls. :-) (And they do call!) I also have LTO4 and LTO5 and RDX in my colo. No I can't hook ALL Of them up at once....

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis


On 12/17/2012 2:41 PM, Eric Lehti wrote:

Does your enterprise back up to tape with the intention of permanent
storage?
Be sure to keep a tape unit that is compatible with those old tapes so
you can restore data from them,
or convert the old tapes to a newer format that is compatible with your
current architecture.

As part of our upgrade to 8202-E4C POWER7 on V7R1, we began using its
integrated LTO5 tape unit and discontinued the
System Storage LTO4 model 3573/L4S (which was able to read LTO2 tapes).

Discovered today that the new POWER7 cannot read our ancient LTO2 tapes,
whereas the previous model 3573 could.

Message CPF4119 is produced in job logs, and tape unit window and yellow
warning light comes on the front of the unit.

We rarely retrieve data from LTO2 tapes due to the many years that have
passed, but once in a while we do.

Sigh. Maybe I should "future-proof" my tape backup strategy as much as
possible by using Ultrium5 tapes from now on,
and discontinue use of Ultrium4 tapes.