Tape Libraries

A tape library is a hardware unit comprised of multiple physical or virtual tape drives and tape slots with a media changer for automatically inserting and removing tapes. The device is sometimes referred to as an automated tape library or jukebox.

Catalogic DPX supports tape devices and media changers compliant with the SCSI-2 standard. Tape drives must support variable-length records and allow a minimum transfer size of 32 KB. Additionally, media changer support on Microsoft Windows requires Microsoft Windows NT SCSI Pass-Through support from the HBA driver or a vendor-supplied media changer driver supporting Microsoft Windows NT SCSI Pass-Through.

Unless otherwise advised by Catalogic Data Protection Technical Support, the operating system of the Device Server that connects the tape or tape library device should have properly installed drivers as recommended by the device manufacturer.

Note. No troubleshooting or bug-fix support is offered for devices that are no longer supported by the hardware vendor. Minimal troubleshooting and no new development will be done for devices connected to operating systems that are no longer supported by the vendor.

Catalogic DPX treats a Virtual Tape Library (VTL) device as a regular tape library and supports it the same way it does for tape libraries.

Catalogic Software has qualified Catalogic DPX with the following tape media:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
HPE LTO-5, HPE LTO-6, HPE LTO-7, HPE LTO-8, HPE LTO-9*

IBM
IBM LTO-5, IBM LTO-6, IBM LTO-7

Catalogic Software has qualified Catalogic DPX with the following tape libraries:

Dell Technologies
Dell PowerVault TL2000

HPE
HPE StoreEver MSL3040, HPE StoreEver MSL6480

Oracle
Oracle StorageTek SL150

Overland
Overland Tandberg NEOxl 80

Quantum
Quantum Scalar i500, Quantum Scalar i6000

Note. The LTO Generation 9 (LTO-9) mandates the “initial calibration” for every LTO-9 media cartridge when used for the first time. The media initialization process may take up to 2 hours. New LTO-9 media cartridges must be initialized before using them with Catalogic DPX write operations (labeling and backup).