HPE Storage LTO Ultrium Half-Height Tape Drives

As part of the LTO open standard, all HPE tape drives and media offer the same standards of compatibility with tape drives and media manufactured by other LTO vendors.

LTO data compression (LTO-DC) is an enhanced version of Advanced Lossless Data Compression (ALDC) hardware compression. Compression is automatically turned off if the compressed data would cause an overall expansion in data size, hence optimizing the available capacity on the media. Data compression is also turned off if data is found to be uncompressible; thus, allowing for better data scans. The system is used in all LTO Ultrium tape drives.

The decision about which tape technology you should buy next should be based on your future, not your past, investment. Choose the LTO Ultrium format when you need the following advantages:

• − Maximum reliability, capacity and performance
• − Compatibility with a broad range of operating systems and servers (e.g., a mixed system environment)
• − A legacy-free technology that uses the best attributes from a wide range of tape technologies without any compromises for backward compatibility requirements
• − A solid roadmap for future generations of technology
• − An open format available from multiple vendors
• − Lowest media cost of any 'superdrive' tape technology.

Hardware Based Encryption

Since LTO generation 4, HPE LTO Ultrium tape drives support hardware-based encryption to enable greater levels of security:

• − AES 256-bit Encryption

  • Easy-to-enable encryption for a secure backup
  • Helps prevent unauthorized accessed of tape media if cartridges are lost or stolen
  • Eliminates the need to purchase and manage additional h/w
• − No loss in performance of backup.

Linear Tape File System (LTFS)

HPE LTO drives support the open standard LTFS format for writing data to tape. LTFS makes tape self-describing, file-based, and easy-to-use, it also provides users with the ability to use standard file operations on tape media for accessing, managing and sharing files with an interface that behaves just like a hard disk. In addition, LTFS provides the ability to share data across platforms, as you would with a USB drive or memory stick. Simply load a tape into the drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as a disk.

For more information about LTFS please see: https://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/ltfs

For applications supporting LTFS please see the compatibility guide:

HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK

Data Rate Matching

Data Rate Matching combines sophisticated buffer management with the HPE exclusive Variable Tape Speed technology to allow the tape drive to match its transfer rate to the host speed dynamically and continuously across the wide range of transfer rates. This feature ensures that the tape drive continues to stream data regardless of the environment, and brings two big advantages:

• − It optimizes backup performance, regardless of the speed of the host or the network
• − It minimizes rewinding and repositioning of the tape, reducing wear and increasing reliability

WORM (Write-Once, Read-Many) Drive and Media Support

Critical to the success of data retention policies in highly regulated environments is the ability to store and manage data in an unalterable state. Following stringent guidelines set forth by regulatory agencies such as the SEC and HIPPA, IT organizations must now integrate new solutions and policies that can verify the integrity of stored data for periods that can extend well beyond seven years.

LTO tape drives feature the ability to archive and store data in a non-rewriteable format that meets the most stringent regulatory guidelines. Using a combination of integrated fail-safe features in the drive firmware, cartridge memory, and tape formatting, LTO Ultrium drives can archive large amounts of data for periods of up to 30 years in a secure, untampered state. Since all LTO tape drives include support for both rewritable and WORM media, IT organizations can now easily integrate a secure, long-term archiving solution into their current data protection strategy. As compared to other technologies that feature support for WORM storage, LTO tape drives offer the advantages of:

• − A single drive to support all backup and archiving needs
• − Two distinctive tape cartridges to easily distinguish and manage both rewriteable and WORM data cartridges
• − A specially designed WORM data cartridge with multiple integrated fail-safe features to prevent accidental or intentional overwriting of data
• − High-capacity, low-cost HPE WORM media that can store up to 45TB (LTO-9) of data on a single data cartridge
• − Support from many backup and archiving software vendors, providing the most comprehensive and mainstream support in the industry
• − The LTO open standard that offers greater choice and compatibility across all third to eighth generation Ultrium products

HPE Ultrium Storage Media

HPE branded Linear Tape-Open (LTO) Ultrium cartridges are designed, manufactured and tested to provide outstanding reliability for backing up, archiving and restoring your data. We continuously monitor the quality of our branded tapes using what we believe is the industry’s most comprehensive and forensic specification for quality and reliability. Using real life conditions and both HPE and non-HPE drives, we supplement extensive in-process QA parametric testing with ongoing drive-based scrutiny, to make sure performance is excellent for any combination of device duty cycle and environment.

Because HPE is a leading supplier of both LTO tape devices and media, we have the ability to re-create many different scenarios mirroring how customers use their cartridges. And many of the HPE protocols are either unique in nature or scale, such as the HPE ‘Green Tape’, and HPE ‘Environmental Interchange’ tests, or far surpass industry standards, for example, The HPE ‘Locate/Rewind/Append’ test. Since the beginning of 2016, almost 700 million meters of media have been pulled and over 40 million gigabytes of data have been written in the HPE demanding Green Tape Test (GTT) protocol. These ongoing tests are intended to ensure HPE LTO Ultrium media is the most reliable you can find. Your best choice for ease of support and maximum dependability is to always use HPE-branded Ultrium cartridges.

LTO-9 Media Initialization

Media initialization has been implemented in LTO-9 technology to optimize data placement according to the characteristics of each LTO-9 cartridge. Each new LTO-9 cartridge requires this one-time initialization prior to starting read/write operations, this is only required for the first use of a new LTO-9 cartridge, subsequent loads do not require additional initialization. The initialization process varies in time depending on the environmental conditions of tape and drive. Most initializations will complete within an hour; however, in some cases it can take up to 2 hours.

For standalone drives, the “Ready” LED and the “Tape” LED on the front panel of the drive will flash together rapidly to indicate that the media initialization is taking place. This will continue until the cartridge is ready to use.

Notes: LTO-9 WORM media is now supported on HPE Ultrium LTO-9 Drives with the latest firmware.

Diagnostics

HPE LTO Ultrium tape drives and automation are supported by HPE Library and Tape Tools (LTT). This tool is intended to help in the installation and maintenance of HPE tape drives and devices, including:

• − Verifies installation of the drive
• − Test/verify the health of the drive and media
• − Provides HPE support with detailed device information
• − Multiple options for finding and upgrading new firmware
• − Performance optimization and recommendations
• − Included with each Ultrium tape drive and available via free download supporting all HPE tape products

Instructions and downloads of HPE Library and Tape Tools are available at: HPE Library and Tape Tools | HPE Store US

Compatibility

HPE’s extensive compatibility testing program assures that your HPE LTO Ultrium tape drive works with leading servers, operating systems, and backup applications - and not just those sold by HPE. HPE LTO Ultrium tape drives work seamlessly on many platforms, making them especially suitable if you have a mixed system environment. For the latest list of servers, workstations, operating systems, and backup software that support HPE Ultrium tape drives, check the tape backup compatibility pages on our Web site at: HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK

Server Compatibility

HPE Ultrium tape drives are supported on the following classes of HPE systems:

• − HPE ProLiant DL servers
• − HPE ProLiant ML servers
• − HPE Integrity servers
• − HPE 9000 servers
• − HPE Apollo
• − HP Inc. workstations

HPE Ultrium tape drives are also supported on server platforms from third-party manufacturers including:

• − Dell
• − IBM
• − Oracle

For details of which tape drive models work with which systems, including third-party systems, visit: HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK for the latest hardware compatibility information.

OS Support

Microsoft® Windows, HPE-UX, Tru64, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, IBM-AIX, Oracle Solaris and other operating systems.

Notes: Please visit: HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK for the latest compatibility information.

Backup Software Support

Supported with ARCserve Backup, EMC NetWorker, EMC Retrospect, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Veritas NetBackup, Veritas Backup Exec., BakBone NetVault, Commvault Simpana, Tolis Group BRU, Archiware P5, QStar Archive Manager and others.

Notes: Please visit: HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK for the latest compatibility information.

Cables and Termination

All cables required for a typical internal and external connection to Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers are provided with your tape drive. For non-HPE servers, please consult your manufacturers' server specifications to determine if the cable provided with your LTO Ultrium tape drive is appropriate for use with that server.

SAS-based HPE LTO Ultrium models ship with SAS cable which allows direct attach from embedded SAS controller.

Notes: Visit: HPE Storage Single Point of Connectivity Knowledge - SPOCK for the latest compatibility information.

Performance Tuning

Use HPE Library and Tape tools to assist in this area at: HPE Library and Tape Tools | HPE Store US

Device performance test - will run data to an LTO drive direct from memory to prove the drive is capable of high performance if the data supply rate is fast enough.

System performance test for backup will read data from your primary storage device e.g. EVA disk array, and tell you how fast the array can supply multiple streams of data

System performance test for restore; this tool generates data of a known size and compressibility for benchmarking purposes.

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