HP LTO 4 SCSI, LTO 4 FC manual Use of tapes, LTO cartridge memory, Identifying tape cartridge types

3 Use of tapes

HP Ultrium user documentation and “Cartridges”, Chapter 9 of the Hardware Integration Guide, Volume 1 of the HP LTO Ultrium Technical Reference Manual, also contain information on cartridges.

Timing considerations are discussed in “Time-out values” on page 28.

LTO cartridge memory

NOTE: “Cartridge Memory” is the Ultrium version of the more general term “Media Auxiliary Memory” or MAM, covering all media types.

Cartridge Memory has been added to the LTO cartridge for the following reasons:

•It speeds up load and unload times by removing the need to read system areas.

•It speeds up movement around tape by storing the tape directory (physical to logical mapping).

•It increases tape reliability because fewer tape passes are needed.

•It stores diagnostic and log information for tracking purposes.

Most of these uses are invisible to applications and handled internally by the drive. There is potential for applications to use the “Application Specific Data” area. This is being investigated.

For more details, see “Using Cartridge Memory” in “Using Special Features in Libraries”, Chapter 2 of the Hardware Integration Guide, Volume 1 of the HP LTO Ultrium Technical Reference Manual.

Identifying tape cartridge types

Using Cartridge Memory attributes

To identify the type of cartridge in the drive, read the Medium Type attribute in Cartridge Memory:

Attribute ID 0408h 00h	Read/write (normal) data cartridge
01h	Cleaning cartridge
80h	WORM cartridge

Using MODE SENSE

Examine the Medium Type field in the Mode Parameter header of the MODE SENSE command (byte

1 in the 6-byte version, byte 2 in the 10-byte version):

Medium Type	00h	Read/write (normal) data cartridge
	01h	WORM cartridge
	80h	SCSI and SAS only: CD (the drive is in CD-ROM mode)

HP LTO Ultrium 4 drives technical reference manual, volume 2: software integration 19 HP restricted