Tape Drive Upgrade Compatibility

[Lunixor]

I acquired an IBM TS3100 tape library awhile back for a great price, however it's equipped with an LTO-3 tape drive and has a SCSI interface. Not ideal for modern use, particularly with only 400GB capacity per tape.

I'm looking to upgrade the drive to LTO-5 or LTO-6 for increased capacity/speeds, however I'm having difficulty determining what tape drives are compatible.

It seems that there are other OEM variants of the IBM TS3100, such as the Dell TL2000 and HP MSL2024. The drives for these all look pretty much the same, and have the same tray.

The HP tape drives can be found on eBay for MUCH cheaper than the IBM/Dell equivalents. For example, a brand new HP BL540B LTO-5 drive can be had for around $200 USD. On the other hand, the IBM LTO-5 drives go for around $600...

I can't find any definitive info on whether an HP tape drive (for the MSL2024) would be compatible for use in the IBM TS3100. I'd rather not shell out a few hundred dollars just to find out my drive is essentially a brick. Based on what I've found, the HP drives are manufactured by Tandberg rather than IBM, but not sure if that would cause an incompatibility.

If anyone has any information or pointers, I'd love to hear it!

 

[kryten]

HP drives wont work in an IBM or Dell and vice versa.
Standalone drives are also differant to Library drives.

Also make sure the library firmware will see LTO5 plus

 

[Lunixor]

HP drives wont work in an IBM or Dell and vice versa.

I was hoping that because the HP MSL2024 was a rebrand of the IBM TS3100, that they would be able to use the same drives... If that's not possible, I wonder if it's doable to reflash the LCC on my TS3100 so it thinks it's HP, then maybe it could use an HP drive? I'm no expert though.

Standalone drives are also differant to Library drives.

Yeah, I was looking at library drives that came pre-installed on the tray that fits the library, like this one:

HP Aq284b#103 LTO 5 Ultrium SAS Tape Drive Bl540b G2 for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HP Aq284b#103 LTO 5 Ultrium SAS Tape Drive Bl540b G2 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

This is the IBM equivalent, which is... 6x the price!

IBM 46X6073 LTO 5 Ultrium 5-H SAS Internal Tape Drive | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for IBM 46X6073 LTO 5 Ultrium 5-H SAS Internal Tape Drive at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Also make sure the library firmware will see LTO5 plus

I was able to acquire new firmware for it and got it flashed, so shouldn't be a problem.

 

[kryten]

you wont be able to reflash the library to HP.

it may be cheaper to buy a 2024.

 

[Lunixor]

you wont be able to reflash the library to HP.

it may be cheaper to buy a 2024.

Do you think swapping in an HP library controller card is within the realm of possibility?

One of these:

HPE 351-126-413-01 MSL2024 Library Controller Card for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HPE 351-126-413-01 MSL2024 Library Controller Card at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Theoretically, at that point, wouldn't it think it's an HP MSL2024 even if it's a TS3100 chassis?

 

[kryten]

HP 2024 and the TS3100 use a differant screen.

also theres a chance that the picker wont work with the controller.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

I acquired an IBM TS3100 tape library awhile back for a great price, however it's equipped with an LTO-3 tape drive and has a SCSI interface. Not ideal for modern use, particularly with only 400GB capacity per tape.

I'm looking to upgrade the drive to LTO-5 or LTO-6 for increased capacity/speeds, however I'm having difficulty determining what tape drives are compatible.

If anyone has any information or pointers, I'd love to hear it!

With recent library firmware, drives up to LTO-8 are supported. It has to be an IBM mechanism. Most IBM drives in the appropriate trays should be good to go - taking the drive out of the tray and selling them both separately is much more common than moving a standalone drive into a tray. There are various tutorials floating around for converting library drives to standalone and vice versa.

HP uses Tandberg drive mechanisms and trying to use one in a non-HP-flavor library will give you an "Invalid drive" front panel error and the library will power off that slot.

IBM paywalls the library and drive firmware. Fortunately, the Lenovo site does not.

 

[ericloewe]

IBM paywalls the library and drive firmware. Fortunately, the Lenovo site does not.

Does Lenovo rebadge IBM LTO stuff as a sort of legacy from their IBM server buyout?

 

[Stephan]

IBM paywalls the library and drive firmware. Fortunately, the Lenovo site does not.

Trick... Click on release notes file, which is free. In URL, remove the release note file name, leaving everything including last slash. So https://blabla.com/xyz/abc/relnotes.txt becomes https://blabla.com/xyz/abc/. Directory contents are listable. Grab what you need.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Does Lenovo rebadge IBM LTO stuff as a sort of legacy from their IBM server buyout?

I don't know if they rebadge it or if they just want to be a "one stop shop" for firmware updates for their systems and IBM peripherals. Either way, it is very helpful.