MSL4048 LTO-8 Direct Attach FC

[Ashwin-Scindhe]

Please help to confirm if MSL4048 LTO-8 can be used to Direct Attach FC cable to HBA.

As per the specification:

Direct attached Fibre Channel Point-to-Point is not supported with LTO-7 & LTO-8.  If Direct attached FC is required, use Private loop. 

Can we still make Direct attach FC connection.

[Amarjit_Y]

 For Direct attached FC is required to use Private loop
Supported only when running 8Gb or 4GB speed using a private loop topology

Direct Attach topology Not supported with LTO-8 FC drives.
Direct attached Fibre Channel Point-to-Point is not supported with LTO-8.

[Ashwin-Scindhe]

With LTO-8 FC Drive can we connect FC cable Direct to HBA using Private Loop wthout Switch

[Amarjit_Y]

I would go with as mention in specification "no"

[tapelibraryfixr]

i dont see why it wouldnt work like any other LTO, just becuase its not supported doesnt mean it wont work.

[Curtis_Ballard]

Yes you can connect an LTO-8 drive directly to an HBA.  If you have configuration options, such as using a library user interface, then it works best if you configure the drive to use loop mode.  There are some configurations where drives locked to fabric mode can't connect so rather than have a complex document on what works and what doesn't the recommendation is to use loop mode.

Fibre drives are only sold by HPE in tape libraries where you can configure the port connection method and I recommend setting it to loop however the default mode is to automatically detect the best method and that usually works.