Defining an LTO Device Class

To define a linear tape open (LTO) device class, first complete the following fields and then click Finish, or click Cancel to end the task.

Device Class Name

Enter the name of the device class to be defined.

Recording Format

Select the recording format to be used when writing data to LTO media. The default is Drive.

Note: This format uses the tape drive hardware compression feature. Depending on the effectiveness of compression, the actual capacity may be greater than the listed value.

Format Estimated Capacity Description
Drive Determined by drive capacity. The server selects the highest format that can be supported by the drive on which a volume is mounted.

Avoid specifying DRIVE when a mixture of drives is used within the same library.

For example, do not use this option for a library containing some drives that support recording formats superior to other drives.

ULTRIUM 100.0GB Uncompressed format, using ULTRIUM cartridges.
ULTRIUMC See note above.

200.0GB

Compressed format, using ULTRIUM cartridges.
ULTRIUM2 200GB Uncompressed (standard) format using a 200GB cartridge.
ULTRIUM2C See note above. 400GB Compressed format using a 200GB cartridge.

Notes:

Library Name

Select the name of the library that contains the LTO tape drives used by this device class.

Mount Limit

Enter the maximum number of volumes that can be simultaneously mounted for the device class. The default is Drives.

The following are possible values:

Drives Specifies that the server determines the mount limit based on the number of drives defined and online in the library.
number Specify the maximum number of drives used concurrently. This value can be any number from 0 to 256.

This value must not be allowed to exceed the number of drives defined and online in the library.

For external libraries, specify the number of drives for the library.

0 The value of zero prevents new transactions from gaining access to the storage pool.

Mount Retention Period

Enter the amount of time, in minutes, to retain an idle volume before dismounting it:

Tape Volume Prefix

Enter the high level qualifier of the file name that the server writes into the media labels. For each volume assigned to this device class, the server uses this prefix to create the data set name.

Example: AB.CD2.E

Estimated Capacity

Enter the estimated capacity for the volumes assigned to this device class.

You do not need to specify an estimated capacity unless the drives perform data compression, or you have volumes of nonstandard size.

The value must be an integer followed by one of these units:

K Kilobyte
M Megabyte
G Gigabyte

For more information on the default estimated capacity, see the Recording Format heading.

Mount Wait Period

Enter the maximum length of time, in minutes, to wait for a volume to be mounted.