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LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

 
Jane Tellechea
Occasional Advisor

LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

I'm using these tapes, formatted for 200gb. My question is, how many times can I use these tapes (run individual backup jobs on them) before I should retire them. I have 4 weeks protection on my backup jobs so I can recycle the tapes in my tapesets each month. I would like to get as much use out of each tape as is practical - after how many uses should I expect to retire them and replace them with new tapes?

Thanks
5 REPLIES 5
Sameer_Nirmal
Honored Contributor

Re: LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

If you are using HP Ultrium media , durability of the media as specified as 1,000,000 passes on any area of tape, equates to over 20,000 end-to-end passes/260 full tape backups and archival life 30 years.

Refer follwoing link.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11529_div/11529_div.html

Practically , it would depend on how the media is stored/preserved , condition of the drives in which it is used. It is always advisable to verify media and drive with Tape tools to assess their current condition.
Stuart Whitby
Trusted Contributor

Re: LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

That would be nice if the tape was left in the drive all the time :) I'd recommend retiring these after 3 years. There's no real science behind that, but it may also help to bring in new tape technology in 3 years time when you present management with a bill for a full set of replacement tape media vs the price for drives and (much fewer) tapes of .... whatever capacity will exist in 3 years time, pointing out ongoing maintenance costs, the reliability issues which you're bound to have had by then etc.
A sysadmin should never cross his fingers in the hope commands will work. Makes for a lot of mistakes while typing.
Leif Halvarsson_2
Honored Contributor

Re: LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

Hi,

In some (all ?) backup programs you can set media condition factors (e.g. number of overvrites, lifetime).

For example Data Protector has default 250 overwrites and 36 month (Ultrium medias). But, Ultrium media specifications is much higher.

So, with the settings above you will be safe.
Jane Tellechea
Occasional Advisor

Re: LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

Thanks Everyone for the great answers. This is the information I needed.

- Janee
Jane Tellechea
Occasional Advisor

Re: LTO Ultrium-2 tapes

Great answers!