Re: IBM i support and tape cartridges

yes we were emulating LTO5 before. the VTL is used for our Nightly
rotations, and I keep 5 weeks worth. as those tapes expire on the old DD, I
am removing them.
anything longer term goes to physical tape, and we dup them to the more
current media. currently our physical drives and media are LTO7.

On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 11:26 AM Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

What tape (or emulated tape) were you using before? LTO5?
Are you able to dup between the two?

On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 11:28 AM Gerald Magnuson <
gmagqcy.midrange@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

we just got a new DD, and when it auto-config'ed to the IBMi, is is a
3584-032. we set up LTO-8 drives in the DD-VTL,
so our IBMi tape drives are 3580-008.



On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 10:05 AM Rob Berendt <

robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx

wrote:

<snip> If you are emulating a tape drive with a DD, does IBM even

care

what

model you use? </snip>
Only if for some reasons the stuff I posted on WRKHDWRSC *STG becomes

an

issue.

<snip> LTO did adhere to R/W -1 and R -2, it is only in the last

two

gens

that they didn't keep to that </snip>
Ok, it wasn't a myth, until it was.


On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 10:49 AM Roberto José Etcheverry Romero <
yggdrasil.raiker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I haven't seen IBM i STOP supporting tape, beyond the adapters

themselves

being no longer available. I mean, If you had an LTO1 SCSI HVD

tape,

how

would you connect it to a P10 nowadays? On the contrary, I've used

LTO

drives of higher generations than IBM i even knew about (say, LTO4

on a

v5r2 machine) and other than having to initialize them with the

"tape

default" keyword instead of being able to specify LTO4 I had no

issues.

There's not really that much going on with the SCSI/FC protocols

that

would

make IBM i stop supporting a tape drive, other than EoSL for the

machines

involved and you needing to involve IBM support but... If you are

emulating

a tape drive with a DD, does IBM even care what model you use?

Support

is

on the DD's side isn't it?
One reason I can think for moving up from LTO7 is the presented

capacity

if

you don't care about duplicating to physical tapes.
I don't know why you call it a myth, but until the technology

didn't

allow

it, LTO did adhere to R/W -1 and R -2, it is only in the last two

gens

that

they didn't keep to that and I'm pretty sure it was for technical

reasons.

On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 at 11:26, Rob Berendt <

robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

1-No, I do not have any physical tape whatsoever. If this was an
admonishment for an "air gap" we're using Safe Guarded Copy for

that.

2-No I am not a member of LUG as I am only using Scale Out

systems

and

you

have to order those by the ship container load to qualify for

LUG.

Being

an IBM Champion and some other stuff I do does give me access to

some

information not generally available. However, if I knew of any

upcoming

thing that was not generally available I couldn't even hint at

it.

(and,

no, this is not to be intended as a hint itself)
3-I think we upgraded from LTO5 to LTO7 when we upgraded our old

Data

Domains as they reached out of service.
4-As far as whether or not this matters, this is what I'm trying

to

figure

out. It would be nice if there was a chart of tape support for

release

of

IBM i much like the IT Jungle article today had on tape

compatibility

and

the busted myth that LTO can read/write x-1 and read x-2. This

is

probably

why we only went to LTO7 on the VTL. I suppose I could start

weaning

over

to a higher level just to be ready for the next thing(s). We

have

no

LTO5

left. The last were duped to LTO7 some time ago.

On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 10:01 AM Jim Oberholtzer <
midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

In accordance with your penchant for keeping on the bleeding

edge

of

releases LTO9 has been out since 2021. LTO7 came out in 2012.

The current model of the tape library is 3588.

That said, I always tell my customers to set up the VTL to

match

whatever

physical tape you have on the system (You do have an Oh S**t

physical

tape

don't you?) that you off load the critical updates to for off

site

and

retention purposes. Physical tape can't be beset by hackers,

malware,

etc.

Since IBM i supports everything at the levels you're at, does

it

matter?

You are a member of the LUG, have they talked about dropping

support

for

LTO6, 7 or 8?

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 8:43 AM Rob Berendt <

robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>

wrote:

When using a VTL is there any reason to be concerned about

what

models

you

emulate? We haven't had a physical tape library or any

physical

tape

media

in a decade.
My question is mainly if WRKHDWRSC *STG shows this
Resource Type-model
USSG7VTL 3584-400
TAP62 3580-007
TAP55 3580-007
TAP61 3580-007
TAP58 3580-007
TAP56 3580-007
TAP57 3580-007
TAP59 3580-007
TAP60 3580-007
is there any possibility that some future release will say

LTO7

not

supported and/or 3584 is not supported? As many of you know

I

tend

to

rush

to a new release of IBM i as soon as I can.
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