C7145 (1/8 Tape Autoloader) with LTO3 Drive?

[Markus Ernst]

Hi,
we use a C7145 8-autoloader with a Ultrium1 drive.

Is it possible to replace the Ultrium1 drive with a Ultrium3 drive (e.g. Ultrium 960 Drive)?

Thank you
Markus

[Curtis Ballard]

Sorry no. The Ultrium 3 drive is physically compatible but has some differences in the library/drive communications and will not work in that library. Ultrium 1 is the only drive that was released in the product.

[Markus Ernst]

Thank you.
But aren't the drive and the library controlled independently by the backup software? What kind of direct interaction is there between the drive and the library?

Best regards
Markus

[Curtis Ballard]

The library must configure the drive at power up with SCSI ID information and other values such as how far to eject the tape. The library also sends load commands when it puts a tape in and sends eject commands before removing the tape. There is constant status communication back and forth as well. It looks relatively straight forward but integrating a drive into a library is actually quite complex.