IBM DR550 manual Complementary Products, IBM Tape Solutions, Single node tape attachment

IBM System Storage DR550 Version 3.0 ------ 17 March 2006 Page 114

Complementary Products

IBM Tape Solutions

Connecting Tape to the DR550

To connect tape to the DR550, you may need to add components to the server and switch (if you purchased the disk only configuration prior to 11 November 2005). These additional components are standard as of DR550 Express V2.5. For the older disk only configuration, there is one available slot in each server that can be used for host bus adapters to connect to the tape drives. You will need to have IBM process an MES order to add p5 520 (9111-520) feature 5716. The adapter can support a maximum of three tape drives.

The HBA will need to be connected to the 2005-B16 switch. Shortwave SFPs are provided with the 2005-B16. There are 4 SFPs reserved for tape. If additional ports are needed, they should be ordered separately. You will also need to provide the cables to connect the 2005-B16 ports to the tape drives. You can then order feature 5625 (25 meter LC/LC multi-mode cable) for each tape connection if the tape is within 25 meters. If you need something longer, the cable can be purchased from other suppliers. The fiber cable must be 50.0/125 micrometers for distances up to 300 meters, or 62.5/125 micrometers for distances up to 175 meters. The connection is a LC connector type.

IBM’s 3592 (with WORM cartridges), TS1120 (with WORM Cartridges), TS3310 (with WORM cartridges) and IBM’s 358x family of LTO libraries (with WORM cartridges) are ideal tape solutions for data retention. With write once technology built into the cartridge and dual ports on the drive (for higher availability), these tape drives provide non-eraseability along with high performance. Whether you use the tape drives for backup of the DR550 (using SSAM commands such as “copy storage pool”) or you choose to archive directly to tape, the data is permanently stored and cannot be modified. Using a different tape cartridge (without WORM protection) will not guarantee the non- erase capability that is featured in the DR550.

Single node tape attachment

Attaching tape to the DR550 (single node configuration) can be done with stand alone TS1102, LTO Gen 3 or 3592 drives or with these drives placed within a tape library such as the IBM 3584. IBM’s other tape solutions can also be attached in the same manner. Each port on the FC switch within the DR550 is connected to port 1 on the drive.

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