Which tape drives does Dell™ offer for the PowerVault™ series and which type of tapes will work in these tape drives? - Technical Tip - 162328

The Dell™ PowerVault™ line of servers includes many different tape devices.

This includes internal tape backup units (TBUs), as well as external drives. The PowerVault line covers single tape IDE (Integrated/Intelligent Drive Electronics) drives to large autonomous tape libraries. The purpose of this document is to provide you with the information that you require to purchase the correct media for your TBU.

Tape Drive Types

As of November 2001, the Dell PowerVault tape drives fall into 4 basic categories:

• IDE – Travan
• SCSI – DDS
• SCSI – DLT
• SCSI - LTO

IDE Travan

The Travan V IDE tape unit is sold as a PowerVault 100T. When a cartridge is installed into the drive, there will be a portion of the cartridge that remains outside of the tape drive. Since the tape drive is an IDE device, there will be no indication that the tape drive is detected during POST. The recommended data cartridge specifications:

• Capacity: 20 GB
• Format: Travan 20/NS 20, TR-5
• Compatible Cartridge formats:
  
  Read and Write: QIC-3220, Travan 20/NS 20, TR-5
  Read Only: QIC-3095, Travan 8/NS 8, TR-4
  
  NOTE: Maxell media may cause bad blocks during backups. Dell recommends the use of Seagate or Imation media for the best results.

SCSI DDS

Currently, there are two (2) existing standards for DDS tape drives. These are DDS-3 and DDS-4. The primary difference between the two (2) formats is the capacity. DDS-3 tapes are 125 meters long and have a capacity of 12 Gigabytes native, 24 Gigabytes compressed. DDS-4 tapes are 150 meters long, and have a capacity of 20 Gigabytes native and 40 Gigabytes compressed. These cartridges look similar to an audio cassette.

DDS-3 Tape Drives

• Archive Python 04106-XXX
• Sony SDT-9000
• Sony TSL-9000 (Autoloader)

DDS-3 Media

• Comes as a 4mm DAT cartridge.
• Will be labeled as DDS-3 or with a tape length of 125 meters.

DDS-4 Tape Drives

• Archive Python 06408-XXX
• Sony SDT-10000
• Sony TSL-11000 (Autoloader)
• Media Type

DDS-4 Media

• Comes as a 4mm DAT cartridge.
• Will be labeled as DDS-4or with a tape length of 150 meters.

SCSI – DLT

DLT stands for Digital Linear Tape. The DLT drives and cartridges are much larger than the previous two tape categories. DLT tape drives offer high performance, and high capacity. The DLT drives are designated as PowerVault 110T, 120T, and 130T. The PowerVault 120T and 130T are the autoloader versions of the DLT tape drives.

Currently, there are two existing DLT formats: DLT4000/7000 and DLT1. The drive name will designate it is a DLT4000/7000 or DLT1 drive. Both drives use the same type of data cartridges, but the newer drives write to the tapes differently, such that the DLT 7000 and DLT1 format are not cross compatible.

DLT 1 Tape Drives

The DLT1 format uses the DLT Tape IV cartridge. It has a capacity of 40 Gigabytes native and 80 Gigabytes compressed. The DLT1 drives can read DLT4000 tapes; however, it cannot write to DLT 4000 tapes nor can it read or write to DLT 7000/8000 tape formats.

DLT 4000/7000 Tape Drives

The DLT 4000/7000 tape drive uses a DLT Tape IV cartridge. The DLT4000 drives have a capacity of 20 Gigabytes native and 40 Gigabytes compressed. The DLT 7000 drives have a capacity of 35 Gigabytes native and 70 Gigabytes compressed.

SuperDLT

The SuperDLT cartridge looks very similar to the DLT Tape IV, but there is a tab on the cartridge that will prevent it from being used in the incorrect drive. The SuperDLT tapes have a native capacity of 110 Gigabytes and 220 Gigabytes compressed. The SuperDLT drives can read, but not write to the older DLT Tape IV cartridges, and is backwards compatible to the DLT4000/7000 standard.

DLT Cartridges

• Type: DLT Tape IV
• Format: This is determined the first time the tape is used in a DLT drive. (For example, if the tape is used in a DLT 4000 drive, then the tape becomes a DLT 4000 tape. If used in a DLT1 drive, then it will have the DLT1 tape)
  
  NOTE: To change a tapes format, you must erase the tape with an electronic bulk eraser. This will remove all existing data from the tape and allow the new formatting to be written on the header of the cartridge.

SCSI – LTO

Linear Tape Open (LTO) is a relatively new tape format. It was designed by a group of hardware and software manufacturers and is designed as an open standard to prevent the incompatibilities that occurred with the competing DLT standards. LTO is a cartridge based media very similar looking to DLT. The LTO cartridges are of a different size, to prevent using the incorrect tapes in the drives. The first generation LTO drives have a native capacity of 100 Gigabytes and 200 Gigabytes compressed. The LTO drive that Dell sells is sold as a PowerVault 110T. The LTO Autoloader is sold as the PowerVault 128T. The cartridge used in the LTO drives is an LTO cartridge.