Plan for a tape solution

Several things need to be considered when planning for a tape solution.

• Whether to use tape management software
• The capabilities of the tape solution
• Possible connection configurations with your iSeries™ server
• Physical requirements for the tape solution

• Tape resource management with BRMS
  Backup, Recovery and Media Services (BRMS) is a licensed program that helps you implement a disciplined approach to managing your backups, and provides you with an orderly way to retrieve lost or damaged data.
• Comparison of tape solutions
  The iSeries server supports several different single tape devices, autoloaders, and tape libraries.
• Eight-millimeter cartridge and tape unit compatibility
  The iSeries supports several tape unit types.
• Quarter-inch cartridge and tape unit compatibility
  For full read-and-write capability, there are guidelines for determining which tape cartridges to use for each tape unit.
• Half-inch and Magstar MP cartridges and tape unit compatibility
  This table shows which tape units and half-inch and Magstar MP cartridges are compatible.
• LTO cartridges and tape unit compatibility
  This table shows which Linear Tape Open (LTO) Ultrium tape units and cartridges are compatible.
• Multiple iSeries servers sharing a tape library
  The IBM^® TotalStorage^® Enterprise Tape Library 3494 can be shared by as many as 32 iSeries servers.
• Multiple tape libraries on an iSeries server
  The iSeries server supports attachment to multiple 3494 IBM^® TotalStorage^® Enterprise Tape Libraries.
• Multiple tape drives in a 3494 Tape Library Dataserver
  Larger iSeries servers can reduce backup times by breaking the operation into multiple concurrent save operations to multiple devices.
• Configurations of different platforms with the 3494 Enterprise Tape Library
  The IBM^® TotalStorage^® Enterprise Tape Library 3494 can be shared by iSeries servers, pSeries^® servers and ES/9000^® systems for a total of 16 systems. The iSeries servers can share cartridges in the library.